


The Things We Missed

by crazyjc



Category: Supernatural
Genre: A lot - Freeform, Dean Winchester - Freeform, Eventual Relationships, F/F, F/M, Gabriel - Freeform, Like, M/M, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, OC/OC - Freeform, Original Character-centric, Protective!Gabriel, Sam Winchester - Freeform, Sam and Gabriel are parents, Soulmates, Spoilers!, also a lot of teen angst, and again, and lucifer is back, and not an ass hole, and pagans make shitty parents, and sam doesn't know, and they don't know, long wait for relationships, oh and there's Kali, pagan gods are bad parents, pagan!gods, sam is a mom, seriously, shit happens, some make john look like a good dad, via soul for non-humans and demons!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-16
Updated: 2015-10-01
Packaged: 2018-04-21 03:47:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 21,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4813784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazyjc/pseuds/crazyjc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabriel died, but his grace didn't quite leave... some of it went to a certain Winchester unawares and then came their daughter--with neither parent aware of her existence. Sam and Dean got into an car accident, Anima swearing her freedom to Hades as his successor in exchange for Dean's life and Sam's sanity. How far is she willing to go for a deal she made for a family that would kill her first and ask questions later, and how can she handle being torn between the Hades, Earth, Heaven and wherever Gabriel is? And will Sam and Dean ever put two and two together, or will they end up murdering another wayward Winchester without realizing it?<br/>more tags to add as the chapters are posted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lovenothing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovenothing/gifts).



> Picks up at the end of 5.19 SPOILERS FOR HTAT EPISODE!!!!!

“Lucy, I’m home,” Gabriel called, wielding his weapon in his hand.

Lucifer approached Gabriel in his decaying vessel.

“Not this time,” Gabriel stated, scooping Kali off the ground. “Guys.”

Sam and Dean came out from behind the table.

“Get her out of here,” Gabriel stated.

The Winchesters ran behind Gabriel and shuffled with Kali, Gabriel brandishing his weapon to protect the idiots he was risking his life for.

“Over a girl,” Lucifer stated, clear as a bell and wrapped in a lack of understanding.

Over my Sammich, the archangel thought sadly.

“Gabriel, really?” asked Lucifer, turning to face his brother while the trio escaped.

“I knew you were slumming but,” the morning star paused in disgust and held his hands up in the universal ‘stop right there’ gesture. “I hope you didn’t catch anything.”

Gabriel took a deep breath, “Lucifer, you’re my brother and I love you; but you are a great big bag of dicks.”

“What did you just say to me?” Lucifer asked, moving closer to his brother and raising his angel blade slightly.

“Look at yourself,” Gabriel stated with a building annoyance, “boo hoo. Daddy was mean to me so I’m gonna smash up all his toys.”

“Watch your tone,” Lucifer warned his brother.

“I’ll use whatever tone I want, but you and me? We know the truth; Dad loved you best; more than Michael, more than me,” Gabriel stated, “but then he brought the new baby home, and you couldn’t handle it; so all this is just some great big temper tantrum.”

The brothers looked at one another, Gabriel raising his blade to his face.

“Time to grow up.”

“You know, if you’re doing this for Michael-”

“Screw him.” Lucifer looked confused. “If he were standing here I’d shiv his ass too.”

“Woah, you disloyal-” Lucifer began.

“Oh, I'm loyal?” asked Gabriel. “to them?”

“To who? These so-called gods?”

“To people Lucifer.” Gabriel stated, circling his brother.

Lucifer looked away.

“People?” he asked. “So you’re willing to die for a pile of cockroaches? Why?”

Gabriel thought back to Sam; to the boy whose fate had been decided long before he was born and fought it tooth and nail… the human that always had the best of intentions and dared to see the good in monsters. The one who only wanted to help.

“Because Dad was right.”

The pair moved farther to the side.

“They are better than us,” Gabriel continued.

“They are broken, flawed, abortions!” Lucifer wanted to scream, punctuating each word with disbelief.

“Damn right their flawed,” sighed Gabriel. “But a lot of the try.” Like Sam. “to do better, to forgive.”

Lucifer looked down in thought.

“And you should see the spearmen rhino,” Gabriel continued, readying his trick while his brother was distracted.

“I’ve been riding the pine a long time, but I’m in the game now,” Lucifer looked back to his brother. “And I’m not on your side, or Michael’s.” Gabriel smirked, “I’m on theirs.”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow at his older brother.

“Brother don’t make me do this,” Lucifer pleaded with Gabriel. He had already lost so many brothers… Michael he was prepared for, but the brother he taught to prank with and thought dead for centuries?

“No one makes us do anything,” Gabriel told his brother patiently.

Lucifer looked away, and forced his heart to grow cold to the brother he raised from a fledgling into the archangel ready to murder his own brother.

“I know you think you’re doing the right thing Gabriel, but I know where your heart truly lies.”

The real Gabriel began to plunge his blade into his brother’s back, only for Lucifer to turn around and kill Gabriel with his own blade.

“Here,” Lucifer stated as his brother clutch his hand.

Lucifer turned around and watched his brother’s doppelganger vanish.

“Uh,” escaped Gabriel’s vessel as Lucifer placed a hand on his face.

“Amateur hocus pocus. Don’t forget, you learned all your tricks form me, little brother.”

Lucifer plunged the blade into Gabriel, his grace expelling and decaying, small parts headed toward none other than a certain moose-sized human’s broken soul.

Those parts of grace managed to break off a small portion of Sam’s soul, creating a cherub whose grace was small enough to be undetectable for the time being…  
An older version of that grace wrapped soul sensed the explosion of the parent’s grace and flew to its infant-self, sadly looking to the clueless Winchesters in the car and the goddess staring at the pair.

The older seemed to give a weary pulse of apology as it wrapped itself around the new one for just a touch of a second, then the younger was gone with a

reassurance to find a witch, werewolf and vampire trio for safety until it was time to come to their mother to send them off where they belong to complete the loop and be strong enough to create a vessel to join their parent.

The older didn’t vanish, but lingered around the taller Winchester. It knew something would happen, something bad, and very soon.

The soul’s instincts were right. On the road the Impala crashed into another car, a Honda.

The driver’s in both cars failed to survive.

The younger Winchester was unconscious. The Soul deemed this good and shooed off the goddess of violence, war and death.

But it was too late.

A Reaper had come to claim the elder Winchester’s life.

The grace-soul pleaded for it not to. Hermes happened to sense it, and dismissed the Reaper, appearing in his vessel’s form and smiling sadly at the grace-soul.

I owe Loki one for saving me earlier, the pagan thought sadly as he took both Dean and the grace-wrapped soul to Hades, the least I can do is ensure his kid and Dean are safe.

Sam failed to stir during this.

When they arrived, the grace-soul seemed unsure, constantly guarding Dean as though he were its parent and not the other Winchester… to the creature it was entirely possible, mused Hermes. After all, the shear strength of the bond between the Winchester brothers often did make it difficult to tell where one ended and the other began…

When Hermes passed the judges the being looked back at them, unsure of the proceedings. It seemed vaguely aware of the non-traditional nature of what was going on.

When they arrived at Hades’ palace, Hermes knocked.

The guards looked at him and let him through hesitantly, guiding the trio to the throne room.

Hades sat there beside Persephone in their respective thrones.

Hades seemed puzzled by the group.

“Speak,” he commanded.

Hermes took a deep breath and hoped the other would accept the proposition he had come up with.

“Hades, you have been chasing after this soul for the past three centuries, right?” asked Hermes, making sure that this was the soul Hades had been trying to get a hold of.

“Yes,” Hades stated, watching the grace-soul intently as it fluttered about a human soul incessantly, double checking it was well and faring fine in the Underworld.

“And as this soul was grabbed by me, what occurs to it is now under your jurisdiction, correct?”

Hades instantly understood what the god of thieves meant.

“You wish to exchange their freedom, don’t you?”

“Only as long as this one,” Hades gestured to the grace-soul, “agrees.”

The grace-soul asked its parents what to do. the human one didn’t dignify a response to it and the other one… it couldn’t feel. The grace-soul felt pained by its parents unresponsiveness… it was their decision, not its… but they refused to accept responsibility as its parents…

Hermes seemed to notice the change in color of the grace-soul.

“It looks like its your decision. Who do you think should be topside, you or your uncle?” asked the Messenger cautiously. “Do you want a pair of parents that want you and for your mother to have his brother back, or do you want a parent that can’t even feel you right now and to keep his brother from him?”

The grace soul examined the god and goddess before it. It had been hiding from the Furies for the past twenty three years, and it couldn’t keep fighting and hiding on its own… it needed a parent still, but… but its parent that it had waited for, for centuries couldn’t even feel it… and its mother wanted—no needed his brother… who was it to deny its family?

The grace-soul hesitated, but moved to the death deity slowly.

Hades let the spirit touch him, only for a small girl no older than four to appear with dark blonde hair to her ankles with sun-starved skin and golden eyes all cloaked in black. Persephone touch her new daughter’s head, a crown of flowers blooming immediately.  
The newly appointed princess of death looked at the soul of her biological-spiritual uncle with a small frown, sad tears in her eyes that she refused to shed. Dean’s soul immediately tried to move closer to her, but the girl turned away.

Hermes grabbed Dean Winchester’s soul, stating, “Should she stop being your daughter, their places will reverse, Dean will be dead again and your successor with her reborn as a human with her powers more unstable than ever before.”

Hades nodded his head, watching intently as a weak parental bond attached itself to him and his beloved wife from their new daughter. They would keep her safe and ensure that she knows she is wanted. Her b.s. parents were bull shitting themselves when they let her go in his opinion, after all, he had felt her aide in escapes from hunters and other supernatural creatures for a few centuries now. She would be very useful, and was obviously very affectionate if her previous caretakers’ souls’ testimonies were anything to go by. It would be a good change of pace for him… this fatherhood thing.

“We’ll call you Anima. Princess Anima of Hades,” smiled the god.

“And Persephone. She’ll take over both our roles in the future dear, don’t think you’re the only one getting a break.”

The girl wondered if she would ever see the surface world again… hidden beneath tectonic plates and trapped in the Underworld.

Her shoulders sagged, a set of six bronze-gold wings mimicking the movement.

The pagan parents exchanged a single glance, understanding that they would have a few ceremonies to have her undergo for a year before she could be presented as a potential pagan princess of death (and life should Persephone get her way.)


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A day in the life of teenaged Anima in high school. She's a sophomore. This high school is for demi-gods, deities-to-be and their offspring as well as Fae, nymphs, and anyone that aides the equivalent of deities such as Death's Reapers.

A mouse hovered over a file titled lost_in_translation, and scrolled down to a new page in the document.

Lost in Translation

You know how different words have different meanings to different people topside? Well, I didn’t when I first arrived on this side of the plates. That was my first mistake. You see, it’s not that I wasn’t from this side initially, it’s just… I forgot a lot from when I was little, so I didn’t exactly remember that the U.S. was pretty much monotheistic with a heavy heaping of Christianity… that also meant that I thought that when someone was saying “what the hell,” I didn’t realize they meant the double L hell, I thought they meant single L Hel, and were referring to my lifelong playmate/torturer/friend?/the-chick-my-dad-makes-me-get-along-with-so-he-can-close-his-business-deals. And it may have pissed me off that they were blaming her for everything from celebrities breaking up to the weird shit people do… and I may or may not have had to have been relocated a few times...

So yeah, life is not exactly easy for a girl from down below, you know?

I mean, I can’t even bring Sebby up here! I get that he’s sort of in charge of guarding all of dad’s kingdom from the living and all, but… but he’s MY puppy! (and I do know he’s centuries older than me, and I do not care. Sebby is MINE! If Dad has a problem with that, then he can tell me himself instead of sending Mom or Uncle Z or Hephaestus to do his dirty work.)

Anyways, I should put this away before Yams finds it. Hopefully he doesn’t read some of my older entries and throw another legendary tantrum—I am not joking, his dad made it into multiple mythologies because he is the last war ghost you should piss off—granted one shouldn’t actively try to piss off ghosts or ghosts-gone-gods, but still.

The teen read over her digital diary entry before saving her changes to the file, and placing yet another firewall around it, just to be certain that if Izanami did help Yama hack her files (yet again) that the brown nosers would have one Hades of a time trying to break in, and that there would be some tweet from one of Yama friends from one of his pantheons would tip her off to his hackery first.

The teen then got up and stretched. Osiris would kick her ass if she was late to class again, regardless of being moved and changing names again, but the teen didn’t mind much, after all, her adoptive parents only recently decided she was old enough to live on the surface again… despite the fact that traditionally speaking, she should have gotten out a few years earlier, but by that logic she would also still be engaged to Oberon and Titania’s son against her will…so she wouldn’t complain… much anyways.

A large bird cried outside and the teen rolled her eyes as she opened her window. In flew a falcon, landing upon the perch by her bed with ease and looking at her and flapping its wings at her, as if attempting to either scare her or make her move faster.

“I know Seker, I’m going, keep your feathers on,” grumbled the teen before she grabbed her backpack and walked by her window.

“Well?” asked the golden eyed girl, waiting for the falcon to _move_.

Seker jumped off his perch and flew out the window once more, waiting for the teen outside.

“I know, I know. Time to go, so let’z go!” the teen motioned with her hands for the falcon to go and began to climb out her window, only for Seker to almost plunge his talons into her face.

Seker didn’t move.

“Uhhg. Hate you Seks.” Groaned the teen as she hung her head, going to her door and withdrawing a brass key. “To Osiris’s class.”

When she opened the door she entered a large room, made entirely of limestone with only wooden benches to sit on.

“Anima,” stated the only other person in the room.

The man was tall, his head was bald save for the carefully styled beard that only existed on his chin. He had on eye liner that a made long, thin cat tail on each eye. He wore a white form-fitting shirt and pants, with a thick gold chain.

“Os,” Anima responded, rolling her eyes.

“You’re late.”

Anima rolled her eyes. “I was journaling.”

“And that serves what purpose as an excuse to miss class?”

“It’s either I journal or I word vomit my emotion Os,” the teen shrugged, “and I’d rather not emotion vomit.”

“Do you need to take more lessons with Alistair?” asked the god, his patience running thin. Perhaps her previous teacher could serve better than any to whip the teen into shape (hopefully literally).

Anima froze, remembering his lessons where he was overly enthusiastic in the Fields of Punishment before reality hit her hard. Alistair had been dead for years by her perception and hung her head as she murmured, “‘Stair is dead Os…”

Osiris flinched at the sudden dejection. “Anima…”

Anima didn’t look up, all the god could see was blondish-brown hair hiding her as the long locks cloaked her form. 

“Anima…”

The girl refused to look up.

Osiris sighed, he had forgotten how easily the future ruler of Hades became attached to others. It was unbecoming of a future ruler however it was a fatal flaw of every fire and wind born child... and Anima happened to be such a child by elements.

“Anima Winchester.”

Anima looked up, sad pools of gold causing a pang of guilt to hit the god. She was the youngest of the Underworld and had been allowed to _leave_ her biological parents not once, but twice...

He should only call her “of Hades;” she didn’t identify as a member of the Winchester clan.

“M’not a Winchester.”

Osiris nodded and made a note to tell Hephaestus about her change in mood and that she would be seeking him to confide in (or to simply mope around… he hated handling the extremist beta without her charges… she was sooo… moody.)

“I am aware, but you have yet to select a new human name Anima.”

“I already told you Keres Aisha Eld.”

“And I told you that Keres is too much of a giveaway to other supernatural creatures. Would Kerry Bion do for you?”

Anima seemed to think for a minute, then sighing, “Fine, it refers to both my chosen parents and retains Greek origins… Father will be pleased enough.”

“Are you certain it isn’t the fact you name can be translated to ‘violent death of life’ that will please him?” smiled Osiris, glad that for the moment the brewing storm was at a standstill.

Before the girl could respond, there was a loud banging on the door. Anima felt flames form from her hands and her eyes widened, sensing something she had long since steeled herself never to feel.

A pair burst in and Anima cursed beneath her breath. 

Osiris glanced at her and the two humans that had broken that seals to enter his home.

The taller member of the pair held an expression that mirrored Anima’s; frustrated confusion.

“Anima?” asked the god, curious as to why his student hadn’t wasted the pair as she usually did to intruders.

“Close your eyes. Now.” ordered Anima, not taking her eyes off of the pair.

Osiris knew the order wasn’t for him and made a note to inform Hades of the shift in Anima’s behavior.

The taller of the pair quickly covered the smaller’s eyes without question and then his own.

In a flash of grace the god and goddess-to-be were gone, leaving the pair in an abandoned warehouse instead of a classroom; confused and unsure of their next step.

“Sammy, what just happened?” Dean asked as he ran his hand nervously through his hair.

“I… don’t know Dean….” Sam murmured in disbelief, looking at the scorch marks in the ground from where Osiris and that kid—thing—Anima had been standing only seconds before.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anima, Osiris and the aftermath of being a pagan and a b.s. Winchester

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy!

           “Anima?” asked Osiris as he settled into the teen’s current living arrangement.

            Anima’s room was pleasant even though there was another bed on the opposite side of the room. Their room wasn’t a closet thankfully, but it wasn’t the largest either in the off-white walls. There were two beds each pushed to a wall and a single desk against the wall with a window with Anima’s laptop on it. The pair hadn’t decorated yet, the Egyptian god observed.

            He could feel the connection to Underworld that the house held from the floors to the walls. It smelled of brimstone, damp cave, and felt like home to the native Underworld dweller.

            Osiris dared to look at Anima, who was cursing beneath her breath, “mention the fucking devil and then he shalt appear my ass!”

            Osiris decided not to comment on the fact that Anima had just hoped for the devil to appear of all the creatures to hope to see him at her doorstep, the current King of Hell stand-in or Lucifer for that matter were far from his list of favorite company. Teenaged godlings.

            “I am safe to presume those two were-”

            “Yes,” grumbled the girl, her frame falling.

            “And the taller is-”

            “Yeah, and-”

             “The deal for the smaller, I know… So those two are the infamous Winchesters?”

             “Don’t remind me. I’m still stuck saving their asses and I can’t kill them or anything,” the death princess murmured miserably. It would be far easier to ignore them while on the surface if she knew they were safe in the Underworld or in some undisclosed location away from the current shit show the surface had become in her absence from Earth.

              "You are kin,” Osiris reprimanded her. It was impossible to kill kin, Anima should know better.

              “Fucking kin code,” grumbled the teen as she attempted to bore holes into the ceiling. She wondered if her parents were trying to send her a message by making her stay in white rooms.

              “I know you hate it, but it was an essential part of your transition into paganism from belonging to Christianity,” Osiris stated.

              “Don’t remind me about that part of my origins. Puuuhhllllleeeeeeeasssssse.”

              This was murky territory, as technically should her biological-spiritual father claim her as his child, she would under all rights be forced to return to said parent without argument as b.s. kin outranked chosen kin. He knew it unnerved her, and that on some level the girl wished said parent dead to prevent it and to be alive to do so simultaneously. Abandonment at birth had taken its toll on her as any other, and she had never recovered from it in terms of familial bonds

              Osiris rolled his eyes at Anima’s theatrics. Teenagers.

              Anima rolled over on her bed, looking at Osiris upside down as she asked, “So what dumbass move did you do?”

              Distraction, the best way to avoid an issue, the god mused.

              “I did not make any ‘dumb ass moves’ as you put it.”

              The teen rolled her eyes at the deity before her, “and Icarus didn’t fall face first into the sea.”

              “… I may have been collecting souls that did not deserve to exist with the assistance of Anubis.”

              The teen raised an eyebrow and seemed to be mentally waiting to check a box as she spoke. “Abusive and overbearing douchebags?”

              “Always.”

              The girl rolled over, shaking her head as sat up. “You forgot they think every human should be sorted out the human way.”

                “And when did betas begin questioning alphas?” inquired the god, mildly amused by the disrespect his student had come to show in the past few months toward her betters.

              “When this beta began and decided that alphas are assholes. How do you think Heaven got completely fucked up?”

              Osiris seemed to mull this over while the girl sighed, looking out her window and wondering how Mom felt about her being raised in the Underworld… he hadn’t cared when Uncle Dean was gone but… but… No. she shouldn’t think like that, it would only hurt more if she let the ‘what if’s get to her. He let her go, he didn’t stop her when she asked through the bond; he didn’t care about her… simple as that.

              Osiris sensed she wouldn’t respond to anything for a while, and let her simply think for a few minutes.

              “So what are you going to do?” asked Anima.

              “I’ll simply set up a new base,” Osiris told her sternly.

              Anima nodded, running a hand over her face.

              Osiris stopped by the door before saying, “you really need to find a non-familial to bond with, in my experience friends and romantic partners do well to quell worries and troubles of extremist betas such as yourself.”

              Anima grabbed a pillow and threw it at the god, grumbling beneath her breath, “that particular parental plot was foiled already.”

              Osiris took his leave at that… he forgot about her engagement to the Fae prince being broken by the raging parental purist against all form of adoption’s prime advocate, his mother Titania.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try to keep updating once every two days, and hopefully two chapters each time. Feel free to comment, it motivates me to write and edit these chapters faster, and they get posted more often this way. Also, if you want to be anonymous, you can comment that way too!


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anima angst, she got it from the Winchesters and the angels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2 updates in one day!

              Anima sighed as she awoke, knowing Yama would wonder why she fell asleep early and probably let Melanie into their room (again) to make sure she hadn’t set the world on fire… or any part of the world… it wasn’t like she could control convection currents on this side of the tectonic plates this far from major fault lines… they had so little faith in her.

              Yama smiled at her, worry etched in his face when she looked at him.

              “M’fine. just gotta pace m’ grace,” murmured a sleepy fifteen-year-old.

              “They who shall not be named?”

              Anima pulling her sheets over her head was a good a confirmation as any for Yama.

              “Yama, I told you she needs her space,” a raven-haired teen told him.

              Yama didn’t move from his perch by Anima’s bed.

              “Yama Mama, as your friend I’m telling you to reign in the alpha and let the beta be.”

              “But…” Yama looked teen hiding beneath her own sheets, her soul soured by self-loath and doubt. “She’s in a negative omega swing.”

              The last thing Yama could allow himself to do was leave his Controller/pseudo-sister suffer through this mental mashing without some presence to remind her that people cared for her.

              “And I’m in charge when she gets like this. Now shoo!” the other girl stated as she shoved the other out of his room and slammed the door behind a gaping Yama.

             “Now, what happened?” asked the girl as she sat on the other’s bed, careful not to sit on her.

             “Dun wanna tal’ a’bout i',’” murmured the princess of Hades sleepily.

              “No. You may be in omega mode, but you’re still beta and I’m still one year ahead of you, so you know you’re going to tell me what’s what. So what happened?”

              Anima curled into her bed tighter. She missed Ceby and Gar. They never made her talk when she didn’t want to, granted Ceby didn’t talk and Gar was too terrified to do more than weasel it out if her, but they didn’t try to pull any status bullshit on her—especially when she was recovering her grace.

             “Nah talkin’’ bout i’.”

             “Animaaa,” the black-clad girl firmly spoke.

             “Whaaa?”

             “You can sleep after you tell me what happened.”

             “… Osiris was helping me with my new human name to make the documents and then…”

             “They who shall not be named.”

             “Yeah, they showed up and I… I couldn’t make them go away. Mer grace wouldn’t leht me… So… so I had to get Os outta there and I had to tell them to close their eyes and he listened and did it fer da auzzer one and then we came here and… and…” Anima had unshed tears in her eyes. Of all the times for her mother to pick to recognize their biological-spiritual bond, he chose when she had mostly settled into her role as princess of the land of Hades.

              “It’s okay Ani, it’s okay… First time since the deal that you’ve seen ‘em, it’s okay to act like this,” soothed the other girl.

              “Shouldn’t.” Anima curled in further “Shouldn’t care.” Anima abruptly turned harshly to the side facing the wall. “Why do I care!”

              “Because you’re you… Fire doesn’t give up easy and Wind is too forgiving to hold a grudge, even if it is more than well deserved.” The girl told her as she stroked the other’s hair, “You’re a better being than you’re bios could ever dream of being, and you’ve done it without their help. You sent yourself back in time when you weren’t even a second old, evaded some of the planet’s best hunters, and are too selfless to let someone suffer in your stead. You care too much Ani, but it makes you, you.”

              The girl curled into herself again, every insecurity eating away at her being. She shouldn’t care. She shouldn’t, it was disloyal to her chosen parents and was ungrateful for everything they’ve done for her—but she can’t _not_ care about them. She gave up her freedom for one’s physical life and the other’s ability to survive psychologically. There wasn’t room for her… and there would never be. They were happily co-dependent creatures and they wouldn’t have been able to handle a needy little creature like her… especially when her true form could blind them if she let her emotions manifest, and she would be killing herself if she didn’t… it was for the better, really. It just…

              The teen ran her hand down Anima’s back. The beta was depressed, anyone with a brain could see that.

              The girl sighed internally. Yama was right about her being dimming lately… the quad parental bond was beginning to take its toll, but Anima was insistent she stay on the surface... and there really was no arguing with her when she was being this stubborn.

              The girl glanced at her old friend’s back, wondering if Anima had run into one of her Biological-Spiritual parents… it would be enough to stress her loyalties to Hades and Persephone as her two parental bonds…

             “Annie?” asked Melanie.

             Anima looked over at her childhood friend _cousin_ her grave reminded her.

            “Did you run into you-know-who?”

            Anima curled in tighter to herself. She didn’t want to think about her B-S mother being happier with his brother in their co-dependency than he could ever have been had she stayed. It was too much on top of last week… the anniversary of sending her infant-self back in time to the witch (Janice or Mom) that raised her beside her own elder brother (Uncle Vincent or Papa… Vampire and endlessly loyal) and younger brother (Johnathan, Nat… Werewolf that told his wolf-father to go fuck himself in the Sixteenth) stuck and stuck with them until Jack and Jim killed them all in ’87… she missed them and hoped their souls didn’t end up in Purgatory…

           They deserved better than that…

           Anima’s response was as much a confirmation as the girl needed. She hoped that Anima didn’t get too caught in the past and was able to pull herself together in the next few days… She could only hold Yama temper at bay for so long without her teammate for so long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please comment, you can do it anonymously if you want, but please, feedback is much loved.


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing to warn you guys about here, just enjoy the chapter ^^

              Anima glanced at herself in the mirror.

              Her hair was too much like _his…_ even with the golden tint it held constantly unlike _his._ If it wasn’t for how long her family forced her to keep it, and for the fact that dyeing it would be an insult to her mom as altering anything under her mom’s jurisdiction was an insult to nature, and so on and so on and somehow it came back to being an insult to Persephone and something that had to be lectured on many a time before she was allowed on the surface.

              Her eyes were gold (for now) for some reason or another… likely a physical manifestation of her grace as her soul and form could only hold back so much… they matched her wings when she wasn’t restless or furious and the three sets may or may not make her feel better when she was allowed to manifest them in the library, so she wouldn’t complain about their coloring or the fact that she had large eyes… Aphrodite stated that her subconscious was smart and made her vessel very aesthetically appealing when she had to meet her as a child (she doubted that though).

              Her skin was very pale… that was good. As a future ruler of Hades, she shouldn’t look like she lives in the sun… she belongs to the darkness of the Underworld and shouldn’t be on the surface in the first place anyways… even if her actual role was to take over the roles of both her mom and dad, she would primarily be in Hades running the rings and overruling the judges and arguing with various other Underworld deities over who had jurisdiction where and whose souls and whose and where followers of multiple religions belong and such…

              Her neck was long… she wasn’t sure about that as a good or bad thing, it was just a thing… like her eyelashes and eyebrows being visible unlike the bright blonde future of fertility… and her features weren’t horrible, but they reminded her of Fae… Stupid Titania and her bloodline purism… Oh well, at least Kalen could be happy with Warren if they played their cards right…

              Finally, Anima regarded her figure. She was only fifteen, so her curves, while obviously growing happily and made finding jeans and bras that fit properly a real-life nightmare once every few months thus far; she was fine for now.

              She was taller than most in girls in her class…

              It was her clothing and accessories that had her attention now.

              Her pants were black, as expected of any Underworld. She had on a gray tank top today and wore a black leather jacket gifted to her by Aphrodite last year. She had on a pair of fitted boots cover partially by her pants. The only notable difference between her and most Underworlders’ attire was that she was required to wear a tribute to her chosen mom—a very simple and plain crown of flowers that she actively kept alive and in bloom. The less notable difference between them was her elemental alignment bracelets, one of silver and one of orange…

              Anima wrinkled her nose and the bracelets disappeared, only for a choker to appear on her neck. The wiring was black, in a soft design common to normal teenage girls. Then there was a charm in the middle of the front; a yin symbol of red for Fire with a silver center as a nod to Air. Much better, less hidden for Ma’at class and less like chains on her wrists.

              Anima tipped her crown at her reflection, clearly approving as the flower crown’s flowers bloomed suddenly.

              Anima nodded, softly padding out of her and Yama’s dorm room and into the halls. Melanie and Yama were both in black pants and long sleeve shirts as they looked up then sighed in relief. Anima seemed to be back to normal.

              “Annie,” smiled Melanie.

              “Anners bannaners,” grinned Yama, glad to see the strain on her soul had subsided for the moment.

              “Yams, Mel-Mel,” Anima nodded in acknowledgment forcing the niggling self-doubt of ‘not good enough’ out of her head.

              Anima noted that both of them were showing their alignments for Ma’at’s class today. The pair was still Yang, the same red with a silver center as their recognition of her duty as the Controller of their group. Yama wore his on a loose cord while Melanie had a choker with a silk cord instead of wire like Anima.

              Anima momentarily remembered most found it strange for a future leader to be aligned to Yin when she noted her classmates in the halls once more raise eyebrows at her and her friends. A moment of uncertainty flitted through her.

              Yama and Melanie shot them a glare and the stares vanished. Anima felt a twinge of anger at herself. As the Controller of a multi-pantheon deity successor and the natural balance for a Reaper with a rebellion streak, someone had to lean to Yin (aka thinking things through and being creative about it) and clearly neither the child born of War nor the rebel Reaper would, so it was her duty as their Controller to. She needed to strategize, plant and forget the box that every pantheon in existence used and be the person her friends and all of Hades needed her to be.

              “So we good for class today?” asked Melanie nonchalantly while Yama shot another ‘glare of doom’ to some children from the same pantheon as Anima.

              Anima nodded before stating, “I’ll be getting my hours in with Brigid today.”

              “Again?” Melanie grumbled, preferring to spend her time in the training arena than in the library again.

              “You two don’t have to stay.”

              “We do,” Yama stated automatically, refusing to leave Anima alone after she skipped breakfast that morning. Students were already gossiping about it, and they kept their mouths shut about his Controller when he was around.

              “Yams…”

              “I’m not trusting the Muses around you after last time.” It was his job to protect her from attacks, and he wasn’t about to abandon her when there was an impending battle about to begin (even if it was only with words).

              “Yams, I’m a beta, not omega. I can handle myself in a fight if it comes to that again. And besides, it’s Olympian normal. Dad and big Z hate each other. Openly. The mini-Muses and me are the same way, and I don’t need them getting it stuck in their head that the princess of Hades is too weak to handle her own cousins. So tame the flame, I’ll be fine.”

              Yama didn’t look convinced. Anima was unaware of the situation, and war what he was a patron of, not her. He knew better and was sticking with her regardless of her personal feelings.

              “Beeeee,” Yama dragged out, clearly not happy about Anima’s decision, which he was certain of was cloudy after her day yesterday.

              “Yams, I’d stop while I was ahead if I was you,” Melanie warned him. If Anima wanted to go alone, then fine, they would just keep an eye on her from a distance and tear everyone that threatened her in the slightest way to shreds. She’d tell Yama the plan after Anima departed for the library.

              “Yams, I don’t need your big bro alpha-thing becoming a slant to me, my dad and the part of my family I give an ember about war monger,” Anima felt her true voice force its way through. **“So stop now.”**

Yama winced, feeling the invisible chains between him and Anima force him to listen to her reasoning. He hated that she could jerk the chain to remind him who exactly was in charge of who... why did it make him feel better when she did it, though!

              Melanie rolled her eyes as they went off to class together, tugging on her own bond to Yama to remind him they were given an order by their chosen Controller, and to simply follow her lead… until she left for the library.


	6. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> flashbacks and a monkey wrench. Enjoy!

              “Good to see you all remembered to show you alignments today,” smiled Ma’at.

              Everyone glanced around the room, looking to see if any one’s Yin-Yang symbol had changed and checking out the newer students’ alignments.

              Only a few student had a complete yin-yang symbol, but only the children of Balance deities had archived it so far. All the warriors and pro-confrontation-ers held Yang symbols while those that leaned to helping and healing held Yin. The trio in the front felt a twinge of discomfort as every other Controller-Withheld relationship was a double bond between a single pair of equals; theirs was a double bond in a triangle with Anima at the top.

              Yams took a deep breath as Ma’at turned her attention to them. It was no secret the goddess believed that they were an anomaly to be treated with the utmost care, after all, triple relationships were fairly uncommon among future deities due to the possessive nature each inherits… but for two Yang Withholds to co-exist with a Yin Controller? It was theoretically impossible…

              Yet there was the impossible trio.

               In her class.

               Front and center.

               As always.

               The son of a poly-pantheon War god, a rebel Reaper and the princess of Death (and Life) who didn’t bat an eyelash at the strangeness off their relationship.

               Anima just accepted it.

              Just like the day they met years ago.

_Yama walked to the gate of Hades palace, fully ready to hit his head as he said he was pleased to make the acquaintance of the heir to Hades portion of the Underworld. She had been so guarded by her new father that it took a full year for audiences with the other Death deities to be allowed, it was only two years later that he was allowed to see her._

_What Yama had failed to see was a pair of heads watching him as he passed Cerberus, nor that the pair exchanged a glance._

_Yama was then greeted by those two; two young girls. One had light brown hair to her ankles, only wore a long black dress with shades of gray mixes striped on large blocks, looking at him curiously with a flower head band. The other girl had black hair in two braids with black ribbon tying it off and wore a black pants with a black camisole and jacket. She seemed more judgmental, watching him with a critical eye._

_“I thought there were three furies?” asked Yama, noting the wings on both girls’ backs. The one with longer hair had golden wings with an orange tinge to them and somehow had three sets while the angrier one beside her had dark blue wings singed black._

_The one with longer hair seemed confused now, head tilting to the side as she said, “Alecto,_ [ _Tisiphone_ ](http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/knowledge/Tisiphone.html) _, and_ [ _Megaera_ ](http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/knowledge/Megaera.html) _are in the Fields of Punishment as usual, why would you assume them to be here?”_

_The one with braids roller her eyes and stated, “so you clearly don’t know shit about the Underworld. Fantastic.”_

_The blond-brunette didn’t seem surprised by the other’s cursing (seriously, they can’t be more than seven or eight, why are they cursing!) however she did say, “That’s not nice to say Mel-Mel.”_

_“Oh can it Annie.”_

_Yama had to interject when the blonde-brunette seemed a bit distraught at the other’s comment to the point of shining eyes and shit. She was crying._

_“I’m sure Mel didn’t mean it like that… she’s probably upset or something!” Yama blabbed before he could stop himself, awkwardly patting her head as her back was occupied by multiple sagging limbs._

_“You sure she isn’t really mad at me?” asked Annie with tears in her eyes._

_“Trust me, my dad is a champion at being mad at people. Mel-Mel isn’t mad at you,” Yama reassured her, hoping that she would stop sobbing._

_Annie nodded her head, then flew down to Yama. She was taller than he expected, but definitely not older than the other... clearly she wasn’t presenting as alpha anytime soon._

_“You can call me Annie. That’s Melanie,” Annie pointed to her friend._

_“Yama Junior,” stated the teen, offering her his hand._

_The girl took it, her's seemed to be dwarfed by the other’s… but she didn’t seem to notice as her grip more than made up for the small size, (thankfully she didn’t break his hand)._

_“Annie!” protested Melanie, diving down to Annie and grabbing her, pulling the taller girl behind her._

_Yama began to wonder what type of relationship they had that let Melanie allow her friend to cry thinking the other was mad at her, but not introduce herself to someone else._

_“What?” asked the small girl, not sure what she had done wrong this time._

_“How many times do I have to tell you to not talk to strangers!?!” asked an almost furious Melanie, wings furled up in anger._

_“But strangers are just friends you haven’t met yet,” Annie responded innocently._

_Yama wasn’t sure what was going on._

_“Annie!”_

_“MEL-MEL!” Annie mocked with a smile._

_Yama couldn’t help but smile. At least the Hades was somewhat entertaining._

_Then Annie froze, turned and flew off, followed by Melanie._

_Yama wasn’t sure what had happened as a guard suddenly appeared and ordered him to follow them. He was then escorted to the throne room after following a maze of hallways. There was a man with a silvery glow on the left, cloaked in shadows and oozing seriousness… Boooring. Beside him was a well-endowed woman with red hair, pale skin, and bright green eyes cloaked in florals and a dusty gray shawl around her shoulders… Shit. Stop starring. Then in the middle was the long haired girl from before. Only now she had some golden glow and her wings were gone. She had on a nice sundress, but it was black and gray. The head band was the same, and her hair had small braids though out it now. Said girl had wide eyes when she saw him._

_“May I present Lord Hades, his Lady Persephone, and their chosen child; Princess Anima of Hades” the herald paused for effect, “to the young Yama the Second.”_

_Yama bowed to the group, silently swearing._

_“It is an honor to make your acquaintance Lord Hades, and that of your family.”_

_And you daughter is running away from you sir._

_Anima curtsied in response, unlike her parents, with a small smile._

_“It is an honor to meet you chibi Yama.”_

_On the way out, Yama saw Melanie glaring at him, mouthing “Not a word.”_

_Yama was stopped on his way out by Anima._

_“You’re not going to tell them, right war hawk?”_

_Yama was confused, “war hawk?”_

_“Your dad is a war-monger and you're expected to follow in his footsteps, but you think about each move before making it, just like a hawk; i.e. war hawk.”_

_Melanie was now beside her, running a hand over her face as she said, “you need to stop making friends.”_

_Yama couldn’t help but grin as he met Melanie’s gaze, seeing not an angry or jealous child, but someone out to protect someone…close to them. A secret that they had to keep. Now it was a three-way secret._

_“Friends?”_

_“Why else would she give you a nickname dumbass?”_

_“So?” asked Anima, pretending that he didn’t just have a silent conversation with Melanie right in front of her._

_“I won’t tell if you don’t tell them I was ready to vomit from the formalities.”_

_Joy sparkled in Anima’s eyes as she said, “Deal.”_

_“Why do all your friendships somehow involve deals?” asked an exasperated Melanie._

_“Why do we have to pretend we’re not what we are?”_

_“Touche.”_

_“What about butts?” asked Yama._

_"… We have to teach your French now, don’t we?”_

_“I think so Mel-Mel,” smiled Anima, practically glowing as she spoke._

       And people wonder why they got along…

       “Yama?” asked Ma’at.

       “Yes Ma’am,” Yama answered, sitting up straighter as he mentally shook off the memories.

       “What is the purpose of the Yin and Yang division in the bonds of Controllers and Withhelds?”

       “A Controller must be opposite their Withheld to be complementary to ensure long-term compatibility until the day that the Withheld is capable of controlling themselves and the Controller is sufficiently able to protect themselves in all ways.”

       “And what occurs after a true balance is achieved in both individuals?”

       “It is common for the Withheld to be in the service of their Controller.”

       “Good. It is with that in mind that I am to introduce a new member to our school and will tell you whose Balance group he is to join." Ma'at turned to the door, "Ajay? Come in.”             

        A boy about sixteen walked in, glancing about until he saw Anima. Then Ajay made a beeline to the princess of Hades and promptly sat, literally, at her feet on the floor.

        Anima was beyond confused.

       “As you can see, Ajay was assigned his own Controller without her knowledge, as both of their parents agreed it would be best as—“

       “Mother has tasked me with protecting you in the future, as both you and Yama are first-in-line for two separate thrones and Miss Melanie is fated to join the Reapers, and would therefore often be away from your side, I will begin guarding you today as a third withheld,” Ajay responded quickly, uncertain if he had displeased Anima.

         Anima did her best not to scream and throw a temper tantrum (helped by Melanie and Yama sending soothing signals through their platonic/familial bonds) and act purely as schooled future diplomat (and not storm out of the room, call her parents and raise the Planes of Punishment in the process).

         Anima did the most sensible thing she could.

        “Can you take a seat that isn’t a spot that Sebby will fight you for?”

         The class burst into laughter while embarrassment was hot on Ajay’s face.

         Ajay quickly clamored up and took the free seat to her right, watching his charge carefully as the fifteen year old dreaded the rest of class. First her BS mother appears and attempts to attack her mentor, and now she has a third Yang bond to monitor because clearly Osiris ratted her out to Hades and he was acting all over-protective papa bear to her after one hunter invasion in which she didn’t snub their souls and make their bodies unrecognizable.

        Ajay glanced at Anima’s sign, noting that his own balance symbol was complete with a stronger center than his charge, though her lean to Yin was only slight if her soul was any testimony. Her transition to complete balance was being impeded by her two Yang bonds, and was resulting in a growing bitterness, he decided.

         He knew more about her than many…She was born on August 18, 2010 under the moon of Libra and with the sun sign of Leo. At the point of her own birth an older version of herself sent her infant spirit back in time to a witch with a werewolf and vampire to raise her as their own, all of whom died in a fire in 1987.

         Anima was striving for harmony constantly, always trying to fix the natural imbalances in others… She is dependent on others for her mental and emotional stability. Psychologically she will do whatever it takes for those she loves, and do her best to make her parents look good, even when she wanted nothing more than to lash out. Kindness, generosity and loyalty are major traits of her coupled with a desire to help others.

         Oddly, she doesn’t view herself as a leader despite taking charge without any thought and is perpetually the center of attention. She is ambitious, strong and when she has a sense of purpose she is capable of anything... whether or not she is aware of this is another matter however. Her talent for thinking, for reorganizing and pattern recognition were beyond that of his own; she knew how to see the good in others; beyond the bad, and did so constantly; for how else could she befriend harpies, laugh with the Furies and save Kitsunes from the sex slave trade all before ascending to godling status?

        He would serve her as faithfully as she had non-human kind for three centuries, and ensure her safety no matter the cost. He was nothing more than scum by comparison to her.

        Yama decided he hated Ajay and would ditch him… Maybe leave him at some Bible Camp to get him off of their backs and leave him to the angels…

        A glance at Melanie told him they had the same though process, and the plan would be executed in the next few days.

       Anima was ready to smite her dad when she got home, because now she had some weird puppy eyed elder with his own sets of extra arms hidden under charms that looked ready to either grovel at her feet or turn her into his personal teddy bear, neither of which she had any desire for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments and kudos make me write more, so please do.


	7. chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anima visits Hades... and promptly explodes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for not having posted this one as chapter 7 originally, seriously, tell me when there are weird transitions!
> 
> WARNING! Anima makes her BS parents seem like monsters.

              Anima excused herself from her next class, which Chiron agreed to as he noted that she had a new tag-a-long that seemed convinced she was already a goddess and that he was her fervent follower… it had taken a few minutes for her to shake him and speak to her war teacher.

              “I will be expecting to see you after Hades has been given an earful.”

              “I’ll make it up after I finish my volunteer hours at the library tonight.”

              “Good, I’ll keep… Ajay was it?” Anima nodded at Chiron, “in class with your other Yang bonds and hopefully they’ll mesh amicably when fighting…”

              Anima nodded, her stance rigid as she left to look for the nearest door with a lock built into it.

              Chiron glanced at Ajay, Melanie, and Yama as Anima left. The old duo seemed ready to destroy the goddess of destruction’s son.

              Chiron hoped to the Elysian felids that Anima would return swiftly and tamper the impending chaotic cocktail brewing before him.

             

              Anima summoned her key, shoved it in the door and said “Hades.”

              Anima opened the door to black granite and obsidian Greek architecture riddled with columns, high ceilings and random depictions of exploits of Hades.

              Hades himself was stunned to see his daughter home, and without her new bodyguard.

              “Father,” Anima all but growled out, glaring with all the might of the sun.

              Hades was unchanged by the furious teen’s tone.

              “Daughter,” he acknowledged.

              “May I speak with you in my chambers. Now.”

              Hades simply nodded and followed after his daughter, knowing she was planning on screaming about making yet another decision about her without her. He wondered when she would realize that as the familial alpha, it was his right to do so and a privilege when he allowed her to take part in his decisions for her own wellbeing and that of the future of his realm.

              When they entered her bed chambers she turned to her father, eyes crackling blue and white instead of their usual gold. This caused Hades to decide that using his usual, “I’m the alpha, so silence” reasoning would only backfire in his face. Horribly. Time for plan-B.

              “Why in the Underworld would you think adding yet another guard to my detail was a good idea!” snapped Anima, golden light flying off her skin as her soul was actually reflecting a fire and trying to both stay in and escape her vessel.

              “You refused to attack intruders, what else was I to do?” asked Hades in a monotone, hoping that the use of logic and void of emotion could trigger the portion of her being that identified with Wind; logic and facts without triggering her need for freedom.

              “I was physically incapable of doing that!” a wave of heat blasted through the room. Anima was tense; her shoulders drawn up, arms at her sides and hands clenched into fists while she stood stock-still. This was not good as her hair starting to glow a tinge of yellow-orange where the light caught it.

              “So Osiris was right, they do have something over you!” accused Hades quickly, plotting to find and arrange the untimely deaths of these hunters and forgetting his plan to avoid fanning the flames of her fury further.

              “Only thanks to the kin code!” Anima almost screamed, multiple blasts of heat hitting Hades as his daughter may as well have been on fire, her hair now yellow-orange as her eyes were now white and the glow had enveloped her skin, her clothes failing to hide the glow completely.

              Hades froze, staring at the fury of his own child and processing what she was saying.

              “You mean…” he began, bracing himself for further impact. He was glad they had made both her room and everything in it incapable of catching on fire from the black canopy to her stuffed animals and flat screen... he, however, had no such protections on himself or his own clothing.

               Anima all but exploded, her true voice bubbling through every word, **_“Bound by blood, flesh, or similar spirit, thine binds I cannot sever and should I ever, may my death by slow, the punishment long and my betrayal known and prosecuted by all for all time. I cannot kill, injure, or attack any kin of any kind. They are bound by similar spirit and flesh to me, so I can’t do anything but flee from them and hope they don’t find me, because guess what Dad!”_** snapped Anima her voice suddenly stopping, the flames dying and her posture changing to almost reluctant acceptance as ice ran through the room. “He can maim, fillet and slaughter his own daughter, but I am unable to do anything because of the kin code you swore me to.”

               Anima ran her hands through her hair, frustration flowing through her still, but the glowing had stopped, however, her eyes were now a light yellow, not quite their usual color.

               Hades was silent for a moment. His child’s biological-spiritual mother had returned… possibly to take her away in the near future. His actions were correct then, however telling that way would only ignite her anger again… a path that it was preferable to avoid.

               “You cannot defend yourself against him, Ajay has no such binds against him.” Hades stated factually, hoping that Wind could rule her for the time being as long as he led her to it, as he had begun.

               Anima did not try to state that either Yama or Melanie could kill her BS mother. They both knew that Melanie and her were somehow cousins and therefore bound to the same kin, while Yama’s mother, being Calypso, is directly bound not to harm any kin of any Olympian (adopted or otherwise) and was incapable of harming her BS mother.

              “You need a protector because of this,” Hades reasoned.

              “Yama and Melanie already make others suspicious father. There are greater talks of my weakness requiring two Withholds to protect me,” growled out Anima, rubbing a hand over her face.

              “And you know I am more concerned with your safety as your father than I am about surface gossip,” Hades told her calmly.

              Anima wanted to do nothing more than scream but refused to in front of her father.

              “And you did so without warning me.”

              “I assumed Osiris had told you.”

              “It is not his duty to, it is your's father.”

              Hades stared at his daughter, failing to find anything other than frustration and stress at the moment.

              “Do you wish to visit the forge?”

              Anima nodded. She needed to vent to Hephaestus yesterday.

              “Yes, but Father, warn me when you are making deals concerning me from now on.”

              “I may.”

              “Father.”

              “I will.”

              “Uncross your fingers and swear on the Styx.”

              Hades swore internally. His daughter had learned too well.

              “On the Styx I will not make deals in the future concerning Anima without warning her previously.”

              “Thank you,” breathed Anima, her shoulders sagging.

              “Do you wish to visit Hephaestus now?” Hades asked, airing on caution. His daughter was furious before, and now she was strangely quiet… her encounter with her biological-spiritual mother must be wearing her thin, he assumed.

             Anima did not respond, only summoning her key and using it to open the door.

             She didn’t say a word as she slipped out of her chambers, a wave of heat escaping as she departed.

             Hades ran a hand through his hair. His daughter was not talking to him again, teenaged and her soul had seemed strained. How was he going to protect her if she didn’t let him know what it was he needed to protect her from? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments and kudos are good inspiration, thank you!


	8. Chapter 7

              Anima stepped softly into the forge, sighing happily as the familiar warmth greeted her skin.

              The cavern called the forge was more than large enough to contain the weapons, materials and tools used by Hephaestus in his true form, and in all honestly she may as well be an ant when she entered but… it felt safe.

              The smell of melting metals and crackling flames relaxed her shoulders. Anima swiftly removed her jacket, depositing it on the side. It revealed three wings in golden ink tattooed to her arms.

              Hephaestus turned from the forge farther into the cavern, his voice booming as he spoke.

              “How’s Earth treating you?”

              Anima smiled, seeing as Hephaestus was just in his soul’s form at the moment and debated doing the same. Her wings decided they wanted out before she could decide, shaped more like a Merlin hawk now.

              The tattoos on her arms seemed to lift off her skin, feathers filling in the blank spots in the wings and growing to about her size, springing forth from her upper back. Her wings stretched from lack of use during her time on Earth, muscles stiff and a bit sore.

              Anima shook her head and flew to the mass that dwarfed her.

              “Earth is… interesting…”

              “You mistook various phrases, didn’t you?”

              “… maybe…”

              The mass then began laughing.

              “Shut up Hephaestus!” demanded Anima, glaring at the smith.

              When the laughter died down Hephaestus took in Anima’s grace-soul and frowned. The bond to her BS mother was active when it usually wasn’t and there was a new bond tied to her alignment. What in the realms had happened to her this time?

              “You BS mother’s bond is active and you have another Yang bond,” he stated in mild bewilderment.

              Anima stilled and grumbled something he couldn’t decipher, her wings more frazzled than usual.

              “Spill your guts or I’ll have Hermes tell me everything.”

              Anima crossed her arms, “he doesn’t know the whole thing or anything for that matter.”

              “He’s the gossip of Olympus and the true father to the Muses, do you really want to test that theory?”

              Anima’s shoulders slumped. She was always outdone by her family. She had nothing she could keep to herself since Hades took her into custody.

              “BS showed up while I was with Os after relocation.”

              Hephaestus winced.

              “And it’s not like I didn’t want to kill him for trespassing, I mean, I’ve done it to tens before for my mentors and hundreds back when I was with my first family, but this time my flames wouldn’t attack. I can’t hurt him, and my grace wasn’t listening to me! I mean, how pathetic can you get, right?”

              Hephaestus didn’t respond, deciding she needed to vent to someone that didn’t want to fix her into a "perfect" something like the rest of Olympus. After all, he was the only Olympian imperfection, why else did any of his relatives visit him unless it was for war and weaponry? To talk? No, only for themselves… Anima was the only exception thus far; she came for an apprenticeship and still returned to check up on him. She wanted to care for him, but right now she needed someone that wouldn’t take care of her to listen to her words. He had to be careful in this new territory.

              “And then I had to fucking fly Os and me back to my place. And guess what?” she paused, her wings now beating the air in anger. “My grace decided to warn him.”

              Hephaestus stayed silent.

              “And guess what? He listened! Only when his own fucking survival was at stake did he think I was worth hearing! Guess he’s just like big Z, only have kids for your own benefit and all that jazz!”

              Hephaestus had a feeling this was only the tip of the iceberg to her hysteria.

              “Then Os rats me out to dad and I get stuck with some new bond! And he’s already fucking balanced too!”

              Hephaestus stirred and raised an eyebrow, returning to his vessel. Anima would need him to hold her soon. She needed some stability right now, and no one was providing that for her at the moment.

              “And then, of all the things to do when you first met a fucker, he plops himself in Sebby’s spot!”

              Hephaestus nodded, watching flames dance about her wings. The tips were orange while closer to the base it was gold. He made a mental note to find out which angels had gold wings so he could get Cronus to screw with them, because clearly whatever they did when they created her left her very, very messed up, and someone should make sure the father knows he’s a screw up for screwing his own kid over.

              “Then he looks at me like I hung the deities damned sky, snapped the Earth up, and made life out of playdough! I mean seriously, who even acts like that anyways!” Anima threw her hands up in exasperation.

              “And Mel and Yams clearly are convinced I need to be treated like a fledgling again because I had one little self-doubt self-worthlessness spiral this morning! And it’s not like it’s not true too! My BS parents didn’t give enough of a fuck to respond when I called them as a fledge! So clearly something's wrong with me! And then I can’t even get an element that connects me to both my chosen parents, noooo," growled Anima, fire flying off her wings as she moved about.

              "I had to get fucking fire and wind because I’m not built to be what I’m going to have to be if I want that dumbass deal I made back when I gave a damn about them to not be a mistake the size of the solar system, _then_ I have to be caged in the Underworld 24/7 after I finish school, and don’t get a damn say in anything in my own life because I am nothing more than a pawnable perfect princess to everyone that I’ve ever thought might see me as something more than the wings and the crown and the girl grown up underground!" Her vioce thundered in the cavern.

             "But nope! I can’t have nice things because my status decides to flip from beta to alpha or omega at the slightest shift in the shit storm called my life!”

              The Forge absorbed the flames thrown off of Anima as she panted angrily, waves of heat and sparks still flying off of her as Hephaestus motioned for Anima to come back to the ground.

              Anima dove down, landing just before him with anger stewing in her until Hephaestus wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her back beneath her wings.

              Anima leaned into the touch, tears wishing to fall off her face but her grace doing well to hide such vulnerability. Why was she suck a freak show? Why couldn’t she just be a less fucked up version of Olympian-Underworlder weird? Why was she so… unwanted for her being her? Why was it always her wings that got Melanie to notice her or Yama to notice that something was wrong? Why did being a princess mean she couldn’t be the raging fire that she just was and mean she had to temper her behavior in front of everyone? Why did she always have to hold back?

              Hephaestus continued to soothe Anima, radiating a lack of expectations and disappointment and concern and only a sense of “I understand” and “I know” and “I’m here for you because I give a damn about who you are, and not what you are” rolling off of him in waves.

              After a while, Anima lifted her head and whispered, “why does everyone else decide who I get to be and how I get to act?”

              “Because the fates are cruelest to the kindest, and hardest to the worthiest. You are unfortunate enough to be of both.”

              Anima pulled away, forcing herself to be strong and to stand on her own, because no one would ever be allowed to join her in the storm of her own life... not even the parent whose wings she had; the liquid was gold, just like her eyes when she was happy... something she hadnt felt for a long time...

              “Why?” her voice broke.

              “That I do not know,” whispered the only misfit god that didn’t press others like him to be better than him.

              Anima took a deep, shaky breath as she whispered, “I should get going. Yams and Mel are still possessive and that idiot Ajay didn’t look like he knew a lot about the real world.”

              Hephaestus nodded, smiling at her as encouragement to keep fighting and playing her part if only for her own dwindling sanity to be distracted.

              Anima put her jacket back on, returning her wings into their tattooed forms.

              “Bye ‘festus.”

              “Farewell feathers.”

              Anima took out her key and put it in the lock, feeling the tumblers and gears move as she turned it, whispering “gym.”

              Anima expected Yama and Melanie to be fighting with Ajay when she arrived. She did not expect Ajay to have multiple arms and using just as many weapons. 


	9. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> what demigods and gods do while on the job; gossip about other gods and demigods in their pantheon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: mentioned character suicide in this chapter, stop at mini-Muses bitching if you need to, then start at the next paragraph.  
> Enjoy!

              Anima felt the tension in her shoulders release as she entered the cavernous room. The walls were hidden by books, the ceiling was high enough for her to actually fly up to it and nothing more than a glass dome.  Most people would say twenty-foot ceilings were high, but that always felt small to her… probably because she grew up first under the sky, then under obsidian ceiling that at their lowest were fifty feet, and now the ceiling above her was no less than forty-five all around and seventy at its highest.

              Easy to say, the library having numerous levels with the school (for classes that were not off location) was her favorite part about this place. It smelled like the corridors from her traditional learning rooms and always felt welcoming; even when the mini-Muses were bitching in their corner about her and death deities being horrible because of their job and that it was her fault Edda wasn't in the land of the living anymore... she only brought the soul into Hades, she didn't drive her to pills.

              Anima removed her jacket and released her wings, folding them nicely behind her back and hiking them up so that they wouldn’t drag behind her, having the elbow hover at least a foot and a half above her head.

              The teen moved swiftly to the returns section and flew about the shelves to put them back in their rightful place. The repetitive action eased the tension that had built in the teen over the last few days, from moving to BS family and “adopting” Ajay.

              Apollo waved as Anima touched down at the return center for another trip.

              “So how’s Uncle H?” asked the god casually as he checked in the returns.

              “Will you end up reporting it to Uncle Z?”

              “Not if you don’t tell Hades that Z’s being a bigger coward than usual,” murmured Apollo as he handed her a text on Vedic mythology.

              Anima glanced down at it and hoped that those who were lost during the Great Destructions and Forced Faiths were somewhere safe, in some afterlife of sorts.

              “How so?”

              “He banged a Norse demi a while back and now the kid is convinced she’s Thor’s, but of course Hera put two and two together because we all know Thor hasn’t left Asgard in seven centuries.”

              Anima rolled her eyes, “He’s hiding amongst storms or eagles this time?”

              “I’m betting on eagles, storms are usually when he’s pissed off and wants to gank someone without everyone knowing who.”

              Anima shook her head, “if he’s found in a flock of cuckoos this time she will kill him.”

              Apollo nodded his head in agreement, “especially since he put a hit on her son; Alika doesn’t deserve it.”

              Anima frowned, “seriously?” she took another book. “Alika is the one that kept Faustus from raping Aune!”

              Apollo nodded, “you think he’d be more grateful for his daughter being protected.”

              Anima thought for a moment, “well, they are sort of in that dating-mates phase now.”

              Apollo rolled his eyes, “that excuses Dad how?”

              “It doesn’t, but it explain it if he thinks the asexual couple are or are not going to make it official.”

              “If a guy goes after his daughter, he uses his bolts on them, and when they don’t he posts a hit… I’m beginning to see why Artie chose to keep her V card.”

              Anima nodded, part of her wondering how Hades would react should she chose a mate that wasn’t the one he chose for her (Kalen is GAY! How come she was the only one to put it together! And the cow eyes he and Warren shoot each other 24/7!).

              “Pretty sure the world is safer if I follow her lead.”

              “Uncle H that bad?”

              “Swore me to kin code and my two bonds can’t attack the BS relatives either, so he stuck me with a new bonded before I could tell him anything.”

              Apollo winced, “ouch. Uncle Z sure is… something.”

              Anima shook her head in agreement before flying off with her load.

              Apollo is easily the only other Olympian (that lives on Olympus) besides Hermes that isn’t a dick to her and Hades.

              After finishing placing the books, she found a few more piles for her.

              “So how’s the new guy working out for you?”

              “He’s a Balance.”

              Apollo stared at her as she finished grabbing her books and flew off.

              When she returned he asked, “How did Hades even…”

              “He made some deal with Kali. I wasn’t given the deets yet other than he’s my new bodyguard.”

              Apollo shook his head while Anima grabbed the last of her books.

              “The last thing you need is someone else trying to keep you safe.”

              Anima rolled her eyes as she turned away from him, “tell me about it.”

              When Anima returned Apollo was finishing up the returns.

              “So you still have time after this to practice?”

              “No, I have to make-up Fighting after this, then I have Rituals.”

              “Fuuuun. Well, I’ll be stealing you after that.”

              “You do realize I’m not your apprentice, right?”

              “No, but if Hades hadn’t claimed you already I’d be in line.” The god of healing smiled at her as he left.

              Anima gave a small smile. Apollo, for all the gossip the god did, was someone she did know likes just being around her. He started taking more library hours when she started surface school; cutting other deities time and giving the Wenchang Wang more time to help his worshipers, and Seshat to focusing on her writings, and Odin no longer has to come in unless he’s teaching corrected Norse History (still a controversial class, as he usually told what really happened and some kids are just too innocent to hear about how sacrifices worked in gruesome detail, or about the various forms sacrifices took or how virginal sacrifices operated).

              Apollo and Hephaestus are among the few she firmly believes like her for her being, and not for her status or duties or the expectations that she is held to...why else would he bother communicating with her when he honestly dislikes royals and death deities?

              Anima finished up the next few stacks before taking a book on condensed Indian mythologies written by Ganesha a century or so ago.

              Anima settled at the rim of skylight, wings curling around her loosely ass he settled herself comfortably, one leg up and one curled beneath it as she studied the section on Kali for the remainder of her time in the library.

              The other students moved about the library, some glaring at the winged kid that was blocking their light, some ignoring it, some just acknowledging it as a part of the 'winged wrecks' that plagued the school and one male omega staring at the bundle of wings and the strip of back between them, feeling his heart beat too fast for comfort, until he was pulled out of his one-sided staring contest by a friend.

              "Jordyn?"

              "Huh?"

              "We gotta go unless you want the TA having another fit about Fae always flunking Species Compatibility because we're always late."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments will remind me to post, so please comment!


	10. Chapter 9

              Yama had his armor on, and a sword with the Reaper by his side wielding her own blades (currently a dagger).

              Against them stood a shirtless Ajay, who had four sets of fucking arms holding: a sword against Yama’s, a dagger against Melanie, a shield which he was shoving into Yama’s gut, two knives that were prodding at Melanie’s fingers to make her release her own dagger, bolas should they get out of melee, a set of brass knuckles, and one free hand ready to attack with a hidden blade.

              This is the scene Anima walked in on.

              Chiron was watching patiently with the rest of the class. The group had refused to work together, so he pitted them against each other and hoped no major blood losses would occur... so far so good.

              Then a door slammed, breaking the concentration of the fighters.

              Ajay withdrew from the mats, dropped his weapons, sent his extra arms back into their tattooed form and was immediately by Anima’s side... or would have been if there wasn't a teacher in the way.

              Yama and Melanie came over, but not in the same stumbling hurry as Ajay; they had their dignity.

              Chiron beat them all to Anima, taking her aside. 

              “Are you certain that this is a good idea?” he asked her.

              Anima took a deep breath and didn’t say anything.

              She had no fucking clue how to make them get along.

              And she just wanted Ajay to leave her alone, and for her friends to stop treating her like glass, and to let her be herself—not their Controller.

              “Not my call, Dad decided.”

              “Ouch,” Chiron sympathized, his students seemed to have less and less choice as the years went by about their bondeds since politics came into play.

              Anima nodded, then turned to her bonds.

              “We are going to get along,” Anima sent through their bonds.

              Her Yang bonds exchanged a look that screamed sarcastically, ‘yeah, riiiight’. 

              “Or we will be reassigned.” The Yang pair sent startled looks to each other. “And I am not in favor of that outcome. I doubt you are thrilled with that option either.”

              Anima turned, stating, “I’ll be in the library.”

              Anima decided she didn’t give a damn about the looks she was being given, or the gossip about her in the non-Underworld circle. Hurricane crazy crap just hit her life, and she was not happy about that, but she couldn’t change it. She would just ride out the shitstorm.

              The trio made a move to follow, only for Chiron to say, "Back to sparring you three. I want either a winner or teamwork by the end of this session, and you're not leaving until I see one or the other!"


	11. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yama's version of the Ajay addition, new students and Sam and Dean make another appearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy!

               Anima stretched out in her room after finishing her homework. It had been a few months since Ajay was added… he hadn’t changed. Yama and Melanie still hated him but didn’t actively try to kill him… at least not when she was around, and Ajay rarely left her alone (bathroom, library and dorm from 10 pm to 6 am) unless it was due to class schedule differences for the first week, after that he all was her sanctioned stalker).

              She learned that his mother was a whole new class of warmonger, not to be crossed and hated the entirety of man due to assholes that raped, harassed, pressured, attacked and objectified the women she swore to protect. The fact Kali had a son instead of a daughter was, therefore, an embarrassment for her, and she was eager to get rid of him—however she was recently associated with motherly love, with prevented her from abandoning him. Anima debated if she would have wanted anything in return or not for taking her son off her hands.

              Thinking of Ajay, he should be outside her door in a few, so she should get ready for the day. After ditching her towel and adorning her usual jacket, a black cami and dark wash jeans, Anima checked her alignment bracelets, noting that the orange had become more of a gold… Why was gold such a thing for her soul? She didn't even like the color, but it seemed to stalk her very existence and try to drown her in itself.

              Anima brushed her hair, debating if the Grimm brothers ever thought of how hazardous hair to your ankles can be as they thought up Rapunzel, when there was a knock on her dorm door.

              Anima rolled her eyes and willed the door to open.

              Ajay walked in, silently, before closing the door behind him and kneeling.

              “Good morning my princess.”

              Anima rolled her eyes, “get up from the ground and stop calling me that Ajay… And good morning.”

              “Sorry,” Ajay grinned sheepishly. “Mother made sure I would formally address you as such, and I keep forgetting your contempt toward formalities.”

              Anima shook her head, “Please try to remember it in the future.”

              “Of course Anima.”

              “Thank you,” Anima said as she returned to brushing her hair… why wasn’t she allowed to cut it again? Oh right, Persephone thought it was too pretty for her to cut…just like being anything but one hundred percent natural was some huge insult to her mother as well.

              Ajay fidgeted a bit before going behind Anima and brushing her damp hair, “Allow me.”

              Anima sighed before nodding her head. To get the long brush strokes she needed to detangle her hair, she always needed help… She hated that about her; being constantly helpless and always depending on others to do even the most mundane of tasks. She wanted to be allowed to do them herself again, like back when Vincent was alive, and Janice was with them while Nat was goofing off with her.

              When Ajay finished brushing her hair she started putting a few thin braids in her hair. Ajay mimicked, knowing it was better than doing nothing.

              Eye of the Tiger blared from a cell, lazily silenced by an arm emerging from the blanket cocoon that was Yama's bed.

              Yama woke up to the pair styling Anima’s hair and felt a pang of jealousy. It took six years of knowing her before she let him help her braid her hair without protesting, yet she let this rando help her without a second thought after only a few months!

              Yama went off into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. When he got out he was alone, a note on the door saying “Gone for breakfast, Saddie’s.”

              Yama got dressed and ran to one the doors with a typing pad next to it.

              The last place was right where he needed to go.

              He pressed enter and ended up in a 1950’s style dinner where the waitresses had high ponytails, rollerblades, and wore poodle skirts.

              Anima was in a booth with Ajay and a few other people he didn’t know.

              “You do know Thor only chose to take you as his child, and that you’re not his, right Skye?” asked a woman in either her late teens or early twenties with dark locks.

              A blond rolled her eyes as Yama approached.

              “Yeah,” the blonde said.

              “He’s her dad like Hades is mine, alright?” Anima said while forking a bit of strawberry covered waffle.

              “Plus, dad isn’t exactly the best to have… he keeps upping the hit on Alika,” frowned a girl with soft brown hair and blue eyes.

              “If I may, can I state that having your parent be a deity seems like a prime way to be unable to have a relationship?” asked the woman from before. Now that Yama could see her better, he realized she was a succubus.

              What the hell was Anima doing talking to a sex demon! He couldn't leave the flip unsupervised by an alpha for fifteen minutes!

              “Trixie you can say what you want, maybe it’ll help Ajay get it through his thick head that if you have a brain you should use it,” Anima stated calmly.

              Ajay opened his mouth to speak when he saw Yama and lightly shouldered Anima, gesturing for her to look to her side.

              Anima did and saw a fuming Yama.

              “Hey Yams, wanna sit with us?”

              Yama quickly took the spot on the other side.

              “Can we all just agree that deity parents seem to stop your relationships from forming? I mean, Anima’s engagement was killed by Titiana—”

              “Kalen is _gay_ though, so they wouldn’t have worked out beyond political alliances and all that jazz,” interjected Skye.

              Anima smiled a bit, “She’s right, I’m a bad example.”

              “Wouldn’t Hades kill anyone you even thought of as hot if he found out?” asked Trixie with a smirk on her face.

              Anima seemed to think for a sec before saying, “Unless he set it up, then yeah.”

              “And doesn’t he only pick out idiots that are clearly incompatible with you—no offence Ajay,” added the girl with brown hair quickly, wondering if she said too much to Ajay or in front of Yama.

              “None taken.”

              “Well, yeah…” admitted Anima casually, not thinking much about it while Ajay seemed to deflate. Yama deemed it served the interloper right, he didn't belong in their family.

              “So we’re going with he’s as bad as big Z then, and another reason why no being tied to the Greek pantheon is a good thing for me,” grinned Skye as she finished up her bacon and scrambled eggs.

              “Shut it/up.” Anima and the brown haired girl (Aune?) spoke with mutual annoyance.

              “Just saying,” shrugged Skye.

              The succubus laughed lightly at the groups antics. She knew bringing them to the Great Defender was a good idea.

              “So GD, you willing to help these two get into that school?” asked Trixie, not forgetting what her reason for meeting with the other was.

              “I have no problem sponsoring my kin, however, they will be assigned partners and I can’t guarantee that they’ll like them at first,” warned the princess.

              “Already knew that,” Trixie then turned to the two girls on her side of the booth, who were locked in an argument over the last breakfast biscuit. “You two better behave and not make the Great Defender regret this.”

              “I always behave,” Aune interjected.

              “Why would she, she gets me around to liven up the party!” exclaimed Skye.

              Trixie shook her head with a smile, “you already agreed, no returns or take backs.”

              Anima nodded.

              The waitress came over to check on them and gave Yama the menu.

              Yama just ordered the sausage, egg and bacon bowl, ignoring Trixie as she smirked.

              “I’ll cover it,” the demon said as she got up, going to the barstools and talking to the manager.

              Yama ate quietly, listening to Ajay explain what he knew of their school and Anima’s occasional interjections.

              A pair of men walked in, probably a gay couple or something if how the shorter one walked was any indication... and was the other part giant?

              The couple passed their booth and spoke about some case they were working at the moment involving a few dead men. So maybe not a gay couple but still a possibility, Yama figured as he focused on their conversation.

              “Hey, Sammy, you okay?” asked the shorter when the taller tensed.

              “Yeah, I’m fine Dean,” Sam said, ignoring the wave of dread that hit him out of nowhere. He had nothing to be worried about, so where had that come from?

              Yama failed to see Anima tense or Ajay touch her shoulder.

              “I’m fine, it’s nothing,” assured Anima, wanting to leave as quickly as possible.

              The pair mentioned something about a friend named Cas… probably the shorter’s boyfriend of something (he was definitely gay with his gait. No argument about it, G-A-Y and he had no straight guy alibi).

              It wasn’t until the party was heading out that the shorter of the pair noticed Anima and indicated to his partner to turn around and make sure that what he was seeing was there.

              The group left as the taller turned and saw the girl that was with Osiris.

              “Hey!” Sam said, getting the attention of the diner.

              The group vanished behind the door.

              Sam went out to chase after them, only for the group to be gone.

              “What the hell?” Sam wondered aloud before returning cautiously to his seat.

              Dean raised an eyebrow, "Was it her?"

              "Yeah Dean," Sam grumbled, "that was her."

              Dean seemed to think for a minute. "We'll have Bobby see if he can get someone to track her."

              Sam nodded his head, a sinking feeling in his stomach as he tried to figure out what the girl was doing. She looked ready to kill them but warned them to close their eyes and left with Osiris, and now she was just in one of his old favorite diners? 

              "You know Kelly?" asked the waitress when she came over.

              "Sort of, it's complicated," Sam admitted. 

              "Not surprised, everything's complicated with her, from moving here with her brother to the new beau he hates, it's a wonder how the girl keeps smiling like that," remarked the waitress, Gladdis Sam thought her name was.

              Sam and Dean exchanged a quick glance, and made a note to stick around in this town for the next few days and see what they could dig up on Kelly.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment or kudos, because you know you want to.   
> Thank you!


	12. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> .... Anima in her role at school and then things get... interesting...   
>  this is why demigods have their own school run by deities, and not by other demis...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy!

              Anima took a deep breath when they were back, turning to Yama immediately.

              “Hey Yams? Can you tell Mel Mel and Cyote I’ll be a bit late for BIH?”

              Yama didn’t look pleased.

              “I need to register Aune and Skye as their sponsor, and we both know Ajay isn’t allowed to leave.”

              Yama raised an eyebrow, inner alpha still not trusting the beta around _his_ pseudo-sister. (Alphas, possessive creatures.)

              “You don’t know… I’ll explain later then, but seriously, someone has to,” she gestured to the pair of omegas beside her, “so you go.”

              Yama frowned but did as told, only because he understood her logic here… even if he’d rather scorch his own eyes out than listen to reason, he would this time… and corner his sister later about everything when that damn interloper wasn’t around.

              Anima smiled and called back, “Thanks.”

              Yama threw a hand in the air to dismiss her thanks; family didn’t need to say it.

              Anima watched him leave, still panicking internally over earlier. She was glad the alpha hadn’t picked up on it, and only had to keep her cool a little longer. Once Aune and Skye were registered they would be assigned in the same room and be looked at to find a compatible bonded for them—during which Anima would not be needed and allowed to go to her room for a well-deserved freak out about her favorite diner being ruined by they-who-shall-not-be-named (and sadly not the Death Eater’s version) showing up at it.

              She wouldn’t be going to Saddie’s again.

              “Follow me,” Anima smiled happily, playing the part of the good-natured mentor and not the child having a panic attack, one of the few things Alistair taught her that she still used.

              The trio did as she said, navigating the halls behind her with looks of curiosity (Skye and Aune), and adoration (guess who?) and entered the office after her.

              Thoth looked up at the group for a nanosecond.

              “Death Dominion and Destroyer, to what do we owe the pleasure?” asked the god calmly, not looking up from his computer screen as he typed away busily.

              Anima flipped her ‘switch’ into her princess of Death mode, as she had come to think of it. (She hated Thoth’s attitude, never looking anything less than like a zombie… it bothered her. He was alive and he didn't act it. Too much like Plains of Punishment... too much...)

              “I am sponsoring two omegas that wish to join our program here. Skye and Aune are well known enough as is and lack the training and resources to sufficiently protect themselves from the creatures they attract, therefore I am telling you that you are enrolling them today and finding who they are compatible with for Balance class as each’s Controller or Withheld.”

              Thoth tore his gaze away to see the princess of Hades unwavering poker face.

              “Yes ma’am,” the god grumbled.

              The Principal’s door opened, revealing Yang Chang. The woman had her hair in a bun today, and her eyes fell to the group before her.

              “Anima, I hear you want to register these two?” she gestured to the omega pair before them (even if Skye read as a beta to most).

              Anima nodded.

              “Alright then, I’ll give them the paperwork and you know where to sign for the sponsor.”

              Ajay looked at Anima as she nodded while Aune and Skye were given their work.

              At Ajay’s unofficial inquiries she stated, “I’ve sponsored a lot of demis before. Only Death Dominions can sponsor, and sponsors are required to enter here. It means I don’t want them dying anytime in the near future because I deem they have some value, otherwise they'd be left to fend for themselves.”

              Ajay nodded his head slowly watching as Anima murmured corrections and explained terms to the freshmen.

              Yang Chang looked over at Ajay.

              “You can return to class.”

              Ajay’s eyes went from light silver to a steely gray.

              “I will not abandon my princess.”

              Anima did her best not to blush at the blatant implications of a romantic relationship that Ajay unwittingly placed in their principal’s head (and the smirk Akye shot her with Aune's knowing sympathy eyes to Ajay. Deities damnit! She couldn't win!)

              Yang Chang gave the Anima a look.

              “Ajay is my bodyguard under the contract our parents made. He must be at my side unless I tell him explicitly otherwise with the consent of my father, otherwise the binding spell between his mother and my father will force his biological bond to his mother to force him to find and stay by my side.”

              The woman looked genuinely upset about that: parents restricting student’s independence always lead to a drop in will to make their own decisions, resulting in poor leadership down the line, and where would that leave the demis when they were captured? Or took their parent's places?

              “Would you two be alright if I intervened and renegotiate this agreement?” offered Yang Chang. The woman knew it may help undo any damage the agreement had done to Anima’s self-esteem and self-image… She was already well aware of the other’s view of herself as unspectacular after the psych evaluation the girl underwent during her third month on the Surface, (primarily rooted in her lack of control and power over her own life’s direction).

              Anima exchanged a look with Ajay. She had been considering asking him if they would like their bond to be a private one between each other, rather than semi-private with a heavy heaping of parental overview of their movements more so than usual.

              Yang Chang figured they would discuss this in private later.

              Skye snorted at one thing on it before asking, “Hey, do I have to check ‘omega’ when I don’t always fit it?”

              Yang Chang gave the blonde a look.

              “What? Apparently my soul is amorphous and can’t decide what the fuck it likes best, so sometimes I’m beta and occasionally alpha.”

              Yang Chang sighed before saying, “check Other and explain that on the line provided...” Yang Chang looked at Anima out of the corner of her eye.

              Skye saluted, “sure beans boss-lady."

              Anima shrugged, as a fellow "flip" she had no room to judge Skye.

              The pair finished their paperwork, going off to take compatibility interviews (they sucked) with Yang Chang leading the way.

              Anima signed the papers, gave them to Thoth, and left with Ajay beside her.

              The halls were empty.

              “What happened at Saddie’s?”

              Anima sighed, “can we talk about this during library hours?”

              Ajay frowned.

              “I don’t want my emotions to mess with my alignment today. Ma’at is randomly subbing.”

              Ajay huffed but agreed for the moment.

              Anima hoped she could destroy his memory of it or would forget. She'd rather not explain.

              The pair entered Blending In with Humans lead by Coyote and Raven.

              “Finally you two are present,” grinned a wily looking man.

              “Now we can begin,” stated the man beside him, black hair slicked back.

              Anima and Ajay slid into their seats, ignoring the murmuring… it was slowly becoming tolerable after nine months.

              “Today we will explore how to blend in with humans not in the traditional method,” Raven stated.

              “But by throwing you into various shows and watching you all flail until you find our character’s place, play the part and then get shoved into another.”

              “On average students have fifteen to twenty-two roles before achieving the goal.”

              “You may end up out sooner if you get someone’s role you mesh with.”

              “So some of you may play as few as five roles.”

              “Or as many as a fifty million,” grinned Coyote.

              “We will begin in ten.”

              “Nine.”

              “Eight.”

              “Seven.”

              “Six.”

              “Five.”

              “Four.”

              “Three.”

              “Two.”

              “One.”

              “Zero.”

              “Now fly my pretties! Fly!” Coyote yelled maniacally.

              That was the last thing the class knew before being thrown into the internet; shows, fanfiction, comics and ads.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and Kudos are love.


	13. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...Tricksters. Three of them. In one place. pseudo-parody of Changing Channels.  
>  Also Anima hates her parents (but what else is new?)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy!

             “What’s going on?” asked Anima glancing (glaring) at her new form… why did she have hooves!

              Sobbing occurred off-screen.

              Anima looked to the direction of the sound and went off to investigate, her hoofs leaving no print on the fluffy clouds of Cloudsdale.

              “What in that world is going on?” murmured Anima, only to find a sobbing Pegasus foal with a gray coat and a blonde mane.

              “Uh, hey?”

              The foal froze, waiting for an attack.

              “Are you okay?” Anima asked, only then noting she now had bangs and her mane was a dark brown and her coat a medium yellow. Who choose this stupid design!

              “W-why do you c-care?”

              “Because no one should be superduper sad like this unless something really bad happened…” what am I saying Anima wondered to herself as she spoke, “and when something bad happens, you should talk about it cause then even if it’s a problem that can’t be fixed, it doesn’t make your heart feel like it’s where your belly should be.”

              The cross-eyed Pegasus pony looked at the pony before her.

              “The other foals keep calling me dumb and stupid and they keep saying my eyes are weird!” the pony confessed, crying.

              Anima moved without thought, hugging the foal.

              “You’re not any of those things. They’re just big meanie do-do heads!” and assholes, Anima added internally.

              The pony rubbed her eyes against Anima’s mane, “I must be a big, cry baby.”

              Anima shook her head, “you’re not Derpy, if you didn’t cry I’d be more worried.”

              “Too sob story-y, NEXT!” yelled a voice from somewhere else.

              “Wow, this is cool,” said a purple skinned Skye, grinning manically as the sand around her built structures at random and then stopped holding its shape with no rhyme or reason to it.

              “It’s the power of the structure, it’s turned aimless,” explained Ajay, who was now stuck in woman’s armor… not that questionable considering his mom is Kali and may have tried to make him appear female but hey, not Anima’s place to judge.

              “Are you sure this place is safe for Stevie and Stephanie? Stephanie is… well, she’s human,” Yama pointed out, dawned in a leotard and a see-through yellow skirt.

              “HEY! I can help!” yelled Melanie, a gold star in the center of her shirt, with Rose Quartz’s sword drawn, and a gem in her belly button.

              “Stevie…” warned Ajay.

              Another girl, one with rose-shaped earrings and a silver star necklace, touched Melanie’s shoulder.

              “If you want to help them, then go. I’ll just stay to the sidelines,” smiled Anima.

              “Stephanie! Don’t encourage her!” yelled a panicked Yama.

              “Pearl calm down. I’m thinking,” Ajay stated.

              “But Garnet!” complained Yama.

              “Ho, ho! Called out by the big G!” Skye taunted.

              “Amethyst,” Anima murmured, causing Skye to look at her and meekly smile back, tempering herself…for now.

              Yama spoke again, “Stephanie will stay here. It should be safe. Stevie will be coming with us.”

              “Yeah!” Skye and Melanie high-fived.

              “Garnet!” exclaimed Yama.

              Ajay shot Yama a look.

              Anima sighed, moving away from the group and sitting in a section where the other gem didn’t seem to sense her, making sand circles with her index finger.

              The group of gems left the human alone, too busy talking to notice Anima alone.

              Anima sighed, curled up with her arms around her knees, “why did they even drag me along if they were just gonna ditch me…”

              Anima took a deep breath and hoped the mission would be over soon, they only seemed to need her for healing after missions… and she didn’t want anyone to get hurt.

              The girl flopped back into the sand, watching the blue sky above.

              “Sometimes I wish I could just fly away…” murmured Anima. “At least then I wouldn’t be completely useless.”

              A tail swished into the screen.

              Anima’s eyes were closed, opening them to find a lion with glowing white eyes looking at her.

              “AAAHH!” screamed Anima, backtracking immediately.

              The lion followed her, eyes still glowing.

              Anima quickly sprinted to the sandstorm, hiding behind a sand wall.

              “At least he won’t find me here,” murmured Anima as she caught her breath.

              The sand wall fell.

              Anima turned around, fear etched on her face.

              The lion pounced, then used his jaws to grab at her shirt.

              “Eeeeeh, squeaked Anima, squirming away from the lion with glowing eyes.

              The lion continued to look at her calmly.

              Anima slowed and stilled her struggles as she looked at him, noting that the lion wasn’t growling or showing any other expression. She then noted the lion was…

              “You’re not a normal lion, are you?” asked Anima.

              The lion shook his mane, then threw his head back. Anima was flipped over and facing the lion’s tail.

              “Uh, what are you doing?” asked Anima, a bit of fear creeping into her voice.

              The lion lowered his front.

              Anima scrambled to turn around and fist her fingers into his mane before he bolted. She just managed it.

              The lion ran quickly, jumping over sand structure after sand structure until they were out of the storm.

              “Uh, thank you,” Anima said, dismounting and lightly bowing in the lion’s direction.

              The lion returned the bow before laying on his belly.

              Anima looked at him with a smile, moving to sit down.

              The lion opened his eyes, got up and moved so that Anima was leaning against his mane.

              Anima blinked a few times in surprise, then grinned at him before smooshing her face into the side of his mane.

              “Thank you, Lion,” Anima named the creature before falling asleep against him.

              “That. Was. AWESOME!” yelled Melanie, startling the sleeping pair awake.

              Lion put himself between Anima and the group, growling slightly while Anima recovered from her near heart attack.

              “Amethyst, you need to bubble it,” warned Yama.

              “You’re just _jealous_ because _I_ caught it this time!” proclaimed Skye.

              “No, I am not,” Yama firmly stated, “I just don’t want to have to fight the Desert Glass again!”

              “Pssh, only if I drop it—which I’m not!” Skye smirked.

              The group froze when they saw Anima sitting with Lion curled possessively around her.

              “Stephanie!” yelled Melanie.

              “I’m bored with this. NEXT!”

              Yama and Melanie groaned, sitting behind a snack bar.

              “This sucks,” complained Yama in some humanoid blue jay body.

              “What do you mean?” asked Melanie defensively, flicking her raccoon tail.

              “I mean next time we get to pick our jobs for the day, I’m picking” snapped Yama angrily, “The snack bar is like the worst job at the park dude.”

              “I think it’s the most fun job at the park,” Melanie glared.

              “You don’t really mean that, you just don’t want to admit to picking the lamest job at the park,” Yama spoke blandly.

              “Why would I do that? Honesty is the best policy,” Melanie said with her arms crossed.

              “Because your policy is generally lie, cheat, scam and peel out before anyone finds out what you’ve been up to.”

              “I am shocked at you sir, simply shocked!” exclaimed Melanie, “I don’t think I want to talk to you after that libelous accusation!”

              “I’m getting bored with these two.” A loud voice spoke off screen.

              “I’m putting back on the other one.”

              “Fine.”

              “Stephanie!” yelled Melanie.

              That’s weird, didn’t Melanie just yell that? Anime wondered.

              “It’s fine, he’s a tame lion,” Anima tried persuade her sister and the gems.

              “Screw it. The other one had way less awkward!”

              Ajay strolled up, a top hat on and a black vest on and proclaimed, “We call all be turds!”

              “That’s just bad writing. You couldn’t think of something better for him to say when those two went off script!”

              “Well…”

              “Shut up! I’ve seen fourteen-year-olds more articulate than this! Back to the AU!”

              “It’s fine, he’s a tame lion,” Anima tried to persuade her sister.

              “That’s impossible!” Yama proclaimed quickly.

              “No, it isn’t! He’s just an oversized kitty-cat!” Anima argued, stroking the cotton candy lion’s mane as she spoke him. The lion leaned into her touch, rubbing his head into her hand to prove her point.

              “See!” Anima insisted. She felt lion wasn’t just pseudo-sentient—like he was a student from her class too. Her friends either didn’t realize they were playing parts or they were better actors than she thought. Probably the former.

              “That is too cute,” cooed a star struck Skye.

              “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

              “What! It’s better than the pile of crap your show is!”

              “Oh you did not just call Regular Show a piece of crap!”

              “I just did!”

              “You want to go feathers!”

              “Bring it furball!”

              Anima broke from her role, looking out and seeing Raven and Coyote arguing. AGAIN!

              “Hades, can’t those two play nicely?”

              “I agree with the twerp on screen. Let’s make this a bit more public, shall we?” asked a voice she didn’t know. Before Anima could make any comment whatsoever she and everyone else was back in class.

              Anima looked around and saw that out of everyone, she seemed the least surprised… and least ridiculously dressed… for some reason the mini-Muses were in choir robes, the war-dominions were in various forms of armor, including but not excluding: Monty Pythons attire, Ancient Greek, Rome, Inca/Aztec and all other ancient culture wardrobes as well as Western cowboy, gang banger, and horribly inaccurate native American attires, then there were random fake wizard beards, a slew of Harry Potter robes and it seemed like Star Wars, Star Trek and Space Balls were vying for the most out of place attires… including one guy running around as Slave!Leia. Anima felt horrible for them. Her friends seemed to be dressed in Steven Universe fan attire… and if she felt like laughing at Yama for being in a leotard that left nothing to the imagination that was her business.

              “Now class, how bout I tell you what level of shitheads the chuckleheads you call your professors are?” asked a man in the middle of the room with what anima figured was his signature smirk.

              No one said anything, instead staring at the shrimpy blond man in front of the class who had Raven and Coyote bound and gagged in front of them.

              Anima wondered who he took his lessons from, because his knots were loose.

              “So seeing as the class is convinced all verdict must come from one little death dominion dud, whose the poor shmuck? Huh?”

 

              The class looked around, and Anima felt them all turning to her—starting from the mini-Muses venomous glares, to the Norse and Celtic’s curious ones to various other pantheon’s demis staring at her… DAMNIT!

              “Well Miss…”

              “None of your business,” Yama quickly cut in.

              “Awww, Yama does end up with his own twerp eventually… Things to blackmail him with later after his ‘I’m sworn to celibacy’ speech last week,” snorted the man.

              Anima felt annoyance kick in, again. Why did Yama always try to stop her form interacting with others during potentially hostile situations!

              “Go for it, they were fighting over the remote when they were supposed to be grading my group anyways,” Anima spoke dismissively.

              Raven shot her a guilty look while Coyote seemed convinced she had just kicked a puppy and then prompted him to drown it by holding a gun to the back of his head.

              “Good. Now first, these two numbnuts thought it was a spectacular idea to team up, which with tricksters is the last thing you want unless it’s under an apprenticeship, because otherwise there are too many chefs in the kitchen that are more concerned with who's got the better chef's hat and it becomes a pissing contest instead of making sure assholes get their just desserts, or in this case grades as… What’s your name again?”

              Anima rolled her eyes and told him, “Read the roll call and see if you can figure it out.”

              The man grinned, “that is an excellent idea, now let’s see…” the man browsed about the papers on the shared desk until he found one with a list of names, “Here it is, hmm… OH! Fairy! Which little lady got stuck with Jordyn Alexa!”

              Not a soul raised their hand.

              Anima glanced at the poor boy stuck in a pink lion suit, who looked mortified.

              “Oh wait, don’t tell me it’s a guy? Well, fess up! Whose parents had waaaay too much to drink before smacking them with this name? Huh? Spill.”

              No one did anything.

              “Damn it, ruining my fun.” The man snapped sugar cane into his hand and gnawed on it.

              Anima wondered when this lecture was going to get on with it already.

              “Any who…” the man returned to the list and doubled over laughing, “What poor sap gets stuck with just ‘Anima’ as their name! Okay, now which of the Greeks was having too much Mary J!”

              Anima sent him a death glare that caused his smirk to widen.

              “Oh, so that’s you, huh? So what, Mommy and Daddy to love you enough to give you a half decent name?”

              Anima felt her grace clawing to get out and kill the person before her.

              Melanie wasn’t much better... possibly worse because her grace hadn't been sealed and was trying to leak out of her eyes.

              Ajay simply looked between his master/charge and the man in the front of the room.

              “Uh… Could we return to shaming our professors now?” Ajay asked, hoping to give his seething master/charge the mental breathing room she needed. she had been acting strangely all day, and he knew someone had to defuse the situation before it got out of hand.

              “Yeah, yeah kid, just as soon as this one spills the beans about her progenitors.”

              Anima cracked her desk.

              The man looked at her unfazed before saying, “So whose your daddy?”

              Anima decided to tell him in simplest terms, “My Dad’s the one that thought it was a fantastic idea for me to know how to run the Punishment without any aide.”

              The man’s eye brow’s moved up for a moment before he stated, “So Hades is Daddy and which mortal’s Mommy?”

              “Mom isn’t mortal, she’s Persephone.” Anima knew she was being more clipped that usual, but she would rather have this guy be on the rack and have Alistair go over how to slowly torture someone into insanity again (despite it driving her insane that she was being forced to inflict pain at the time) than be forced to stay in this room another minute.

              “Wow, the Greeks had a legit kid for once. Wow. The outcasts have better morals than big Z and Olympus, but then again it does house a lot of types I’d rather exterminate…” the man trailed off in thought, an evil grin taking over.

              “You know what, fuck it. Your Professors are grade A Assholes in kindergarten that don’t know how to share. Simple as that, okay munchkins, okay, now buh bye, I have people to prank and time to spank!” the blond man snapped on his exit, returning everyone to their usual attire and places.

              “Class dismissed,” Raven stated. The class quickly made a break for it, while Anima maneuvered slower than them.

              “Damn it Loki! Even when he’s dead he’s still somehow a pain in the ass,” grumbled Coyote.

              Anima left, deciding that if she ever saw Loki again, she’d have to punch him in the face. No one mentions her progenitors... she would be better off if they were dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and Kudos are love.


	14. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry, I skipped posting chapter 7 and had double posted another chapter before. I just fixed it, sorry about the mix-up!  
> Enjoy the chapter

             When Anima came back to school without telling Ajay she had left, she figured he would still be outside the bathroom. She didn’t expect to find him curled up on himself.

              Shock and guilt flooded Anima as she crouched and rubbed his back.

              “Breath Ajay, breath.”

              Ajay tightened in on himself, no doubt lost in another spiral of self-pity… then again it was coming from the ‘pity princess’ as Melanie used to call her… so it was likely that’s what he was undergoing.

              Anima kept murmuring to him, rubbing his back as he got his bearings back.

              After a while Ajay’s trembling slowed. He lifted his head from his knees.

              “M-My—”

              “Just focus on breathing right now, alright? I’m not cleared to heal you as long as your mom can track you.” Anima made a mental note to renegotiate the contract binding them together and to their parents.

              “B-b—” Ajay stumbled for words.

              “We can talk later, for now just breathe,” Anima almost ordered, it was an undertone to listen, but she did her best to maintain the calm-friend persona and not the raging Controller she felt screaming at her.

              Ajay nodded, taking a deep breath until his breathing slowed, his heart rate normal and trembling had subsided.

              “So, does that always happen?” Anima asked.

              “Not usually, it never does when I’m around you,” Ajay admitted.

              “And the longer you’re around me, the better it gets and the less it hurts?”

              “Yeah, it goes away completely when I’m around you long enough,” Ajay admitted, running a hand over his face.

              Anima almost growled when she put two and two together.

              “Hey, Ajay?”

              “Yes?” Ajay looked at Anima, quickly scrambling to get up and help his charge/master up as well.

              “Can you help me arrange a meeting with our parents?”

              Ajay looked hurt and confused, “yes princess.”

              “Because you should not be in pain if I go off and talk to people in private.”

              Ajay turned to Anima, seeing the girl that liberated the kitsunes over and over again from various slave traders. The hero that wouldn’t let others suffer; his beloved princess of justice and death.

              “Alright princess,” smiled Ajay, his heart beating a bit faster.

              Anima nodded, grabbing her cell and calling her dad while he followed her example.

              Needless to say, both involved vicious protest from the females while the god and demi-god were both at the mercy of a mother and daughter that were not willing to give an inch.

              Anima closed her cell, stating, “Dad’ll be here in half an hour.”

              Ajay looked like he had no idea what he was doing, the phone yelling at him.

              “Give it to me,” Anima half ordered as she rolled her eyes and held out her hand.

              Ajay felt impossibly smaller when he gave her his cell, only hearing Anima’s half of the conversation.

              “Hello, Kali? ...yes, this is she…” after a moment of listening to what sounded distinctly like angry yelling from his mother Anima spoke again.

              “First of all, I’m the one that called for the meeting and I refuse to have _my friend—_ ”

              Ajay starred at Anima when she said that in disbelief.

              “—referred to in a demeaning manner, so I would appreciate it if you would refrain from doing so when within my hearing,” Anima began pacing at this point.

              “Secondly, I am again inflicting injury on other, internal, phantom or otherwise, unless the recipient deserves it, and that is up to me to decide when Ajay is being insubordinate as my bodyguard—not yours nor my father,” Anima’s voice was particularly venomous there.

              “And lastly, I suggest you arrive here in, now twenty-seven minutes and forty-five seconds to renegotiate the contract because my father had already agreed to do so under my terms, understood Ma’am?”

              Ajay wondered if saying she was being disrespectful or respectful at this point. The stream of curses answered his question.

              Anima smiled cheerily as she said, “See you then.”

              Ajay starred at Anima is disbelief.

              “What?”

              Ajay didn’t respond.

              “You just have to know how to handle alphas, that’s all.”

              “I could have mistaken you for one there,” deadpanned Ajay.

              Anima shrugged, “I’m an extremist, all alpha, beta or omega at any given time. What did you expect?”

              Ajay refrained himself from saying, ‘not that’ and instead said, “I don’t know.”

              Anima shrugged and walked off.

              Aja quickly followed behind her, “Where are we going?”

              “Someone has to warn Yang Chang that her office is being invaded in… 26 minutes, and two seconds.”

              Ajay shook his head and followed after her, wondering if his charge/master/friend would ever cease to amaze him.

              He was still really happy that she called him her friend.


	15. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Negotiation preparations, and negotiating between Kali, Anima, Hades and Ajay (Mostly Kali and Anima fighting)

Yang Chang stared at Anima when she was given the news before stating, “And they’re coming when?”  


  


“Nineteen minutes, 36 seconds,” Anima rattled off.  


  


Yang Chang nodded her head, then turned to Anima, “And you couldn’t have given me more time to prepare?”  


  


“Emergency is emergency and Ajay’s prone to secrecy and acting like an invertebrate, so what else was I supposed to do?”  


  


“Annnimmmmmaaaaaaaaaah” groaned the woman, “I don’t have time to prepare ambrosia and a dead goat to set on fire!”  


  


“Mom prefers them to be alive,” Ajay corrected Yang Chang.  


  


Yang Chang shot him a look.  


  


“I still have a few pounds of ambrosia, so don’t worry about that… you figure out how to set the goat on fire, Ajay in charge of killing it first and we’ll get what we need together, okay?” Anima added.  


  


Yang Chang shot Anima a look.  


  


“I can set up the stuff for dad, I have no idea about India, and we only have sixteen minutes and fifty nine seconds left, so let’s get this show on the road,” Anima added, shoving Ajay out of the office with her.  


  


Anima ran to her room, grabbing a box beneath her bed and grabbing what looked like henna blocks while Ajay was bolting into the barn to steal a goat. Where was a child of Hermes or Apollo when you needed one?  


  


Ajay was chasing a goat while Anima grabbed a pot, put the blocks in and the top on and walked to the barn.  


  


Ajay looked over to see Anima with a pot.  


  


“What are you doing?”  


  


“Melting ambrosia for my dad. Still haven’t caught your goat?”  


  


“Shut uuuup” groaned Ajay.  


  


Anima rolled her eyes, grabbed a grain bucket and a goat followed her out.  


  


“How did you…” asked a flabbergasted Ajay  


  


“C’mon, we only have twelve minutes and forty two seconds left.”  


  


Ajay groaned, following after his master/friend/charge “Why didn’t you tell me to do that!”  


  


“I figured you knew,” Anima shrugged dismissively.  


  


“I hate you. A lot.” Ajay grumbled.  


  


Anima stiffened but didn’t let Ajay see it while her mind whirled out of control; smothering guilt clouding her thoughts while anger at her parents for forcing them together and being upset with herself for disillusioning herself into believing that Ajay may not mind being around her. It was only to stop the pain, not because he liked who she was or is but as a pain preventative… she was nothing more than that to him.  


  


Ajay looked up at Anima, noting a change in her demeanor and opened his mouth to say something.  


  


“Eleven minutes fifteen seconds.”  


  


Anima opened the door to the office, which now was more of a war room with a circular table in the middle, each with a glass of water and four with an empty teacup.  


  


Anima took her seat, one to the left of the one without a teacup, and the goat followed her, sitting at her feet as she petted it with one hand.  


Anima debated not letting them sacrifice a goat, just to spite Ajay and Kali, but she knew better than to insult another by depriving them of a traditional sacrifice.  


  


“Ambrosia? Goat?” asked Yang Chang in a bit of a panic.  


  


“Melting.”  


  


“Anima has it.”  


  


Yang Chang turned to Anima, who made no move of sending the goat over to her or Ajay and instead started petting it.  


  


“Go get another one!”  


  


Ajay glared at Anima as he left, a pain beginning once again while he ran to the barn to get another goat.  


  


“Anything I should be concerned with?” Yang Chang asked as she moved about like a woman possessed—well her vessel was technically, but technicalities aside the phrase still stands.  


  


“No.”  


  


“And that is…” Yang Chang asked, as she moved about, pointing to the goat.  


  


“E.Z. Gabby named her after Melpomene’s late daughter Edda Zabat.”  


  


Yang Chang nodded her head as she ran about, getting everything ready.  


  


Anima got lost in thought, remembering the day she met Edda in person. They had talked online for months, and Anima would have dared to call her friend, but she was… troubled. Edda ended up taking her life, feeling isolated from all around her that were not mini-Muses and hating that she couldn’t do more than stand there, unable to say anything against her cousins but wanting nothing more than to do so. She felt guilty, alone, and was desperate to end it all… so she did.  


  


Anima remembered a tug to the arts domain of their dorms. She had followed it, and somehow she could now move through walls. It was the first time she had to take a soul to the Underworld, and there was Edda, standing there slack jawed and staring at her own dead body.  


  


She had overdosed herself on painkillers.  


  


Anima had touched her soul and Edda didn’t say anything, just followed her to the death domain dorms, into Anima’s room. Anima saw a trap door on the floor and opened it, leading them both into the Underworld, pass Grief, and Anxiety and other familiar faces Anima felt nothing towards.  


  


Anima remembered watching the other be judged and sentenced to the Vale of Mourning, and feeling fear creep into her. She remembered moving to Achyls and telling her the other’s name.  


  


Achyls, who put a soul in a memory loop through every event leading up to their choice to kill themselves, that’s who her friend was entrusted to. Anime remembered hoping that Edda could break the loop, for Chiron to then be summoned, ordered to carry the soul over the Lethe and for her to be reborn.  


  


But in the 1200 years that Anima had lived in Hades; that had never once occurred.  


  


Anima was brought out of her thoughts by the door opening, an annoyed Ajay carrying a dead (broken neck) goat, and the door slamming behind him.  


  


They had six minutes, seventeen seconds left, and that was Salue’s son’s favorite goat, ironically named Cali and was about to be sacrificed to Kali.  


  


Anima smiled a bit.  


  


Anima checked the ambrosia while Yang Chang looked for a lighter and Ajay tried to find an altar with Kali’s symbols on it to sacrifice the goat on.  


  


Anima checked the Ambrosia.  


  


It wasn’t done yet.  


  


Ajay scrambled out the room while Anima poured goat’s blood in the teacup for Kali, and a green tea and chamomile tea blend with a hint of ginseng in Yang Chang’s cup.  


  


Ajay came back with an Altar and Kali tried (and failed) to set the goat on fire without an accelerant.  


  


Anima checked the ambrosia and leisurely poured it for her and her father, having the pot levitate above E.Z.  


  


Ajay sent Anima a look and she rolled her eyes, snapping once and setting the goat on fire forty eight seconds before the death deities were due.  


  


Yang Chang took her seat to Anima’s right while Ajay was forced to sit beside his principle.  


  


The deities appeared.  


  


“Father.”  


  


“Daughter.”  


  


“Mother.”  


  


“Son.”  


  


Yang Chang quickly found the closest non-offensive term for the pair as they turned to her expectantly.  


  


“Death deities.”  


  


“I would like you to explain where one of your students conceives the idea that she can order a deity around,” Kali stated, eyes narrowed at Yang Chang.  


  


“We encourage students to take initiative so we do not end up with complacent leaders your place for the future.”  


  


“And because sitting back and letting others order me about isn’t exactly something any leader should do, isn’t that right Kali?” Anima asked calmly, drinking her ambrosia.  


  


Kali’s expression hardened.  


  


“Yes, that is right when you become a leader, but children should follow their parent’s orders,” Kali stated.  


  


“If that was true then my father would still be in Kronos’ belly and Zeus wouldn’t be king of Olympus,” Anima added.  


  


Hades wondered if his daughter realized she was facing down a woman who earned the title ‘The Destroyer’ in blood… but he doubted that she would care either way. He had an inkling that should she ever be facing her b.s. parents without the Kin Code Oath in place, that they would be severely injured to the brink of death or undergo a massive amount of psychological torture should she be enraged.  


  


Hades drank is ambrosia with a small grin at that thought.  


  


Kali seemed complacent for the moment.  


  


“So what is it you wish to renegotiate?” Hades asked calmly, knowing his daughter had something planned as he eyed Ajay.  


  


“Two details of the contract,” Anima stated.  


  


“Which are…” Yang Chang asked.  


  


“The portion where Ajay undergoes massive amounts of pain whenever I leave him, and for both of you to not be able to track either of our whereabouts.”  


  


“How else are we to ensure that he doesn’t leave your side?” asked Hades, somewhat annoyed at his daughter.  


  


“What if I need him to be somewhere else to create a diversion? Or what if someone else needs to speak in private with me? Maybe I need him to fight while I escape? Under all of those circumstances, I am put in greater danger by keeping him near me than I would be in by being farther away from him.”  


  


Hades took a sip of his ambrosia, contemplating what his daughter said.  


  


“Would a range for the two of you to be apart do well?” proposed Kali who had no interest in what was going on other than to get it finished with.  


  


“No. Then capturing him could become a method to track my whereabouts—speaking of which it would be safest for all of us if you were not privy to our whereabouts. Hunters are becoming more relentless in their hunts of demis lately, and it would benefit parents only to be aware of their child’s state of wellbeing and only whereabouts if danger is perceived by their child.”  


  


“Under no circumstances am I-” Hades began, building into a rant.  


  


“Fine.” Kali consented.  


  


“What!” Hades roared.  


  


“If your child is concerned or scared or in danger you will be aware of her whereabouts instantly. The same goes for me with mine, and they will feel safer. The faster we finish this, the faster I can go back to my date.”  


  


Kali drew a blade and dragged it across her skin.  


  


“Goblet.”  


  


Ajay ran to grab one and put it by his mom.  


  


Kali bleed a bit into the goblet (red and brown), then passed it to Ajay.  


  


Ajay looked at the blade his mom drew and back to his own arm.  


  


Kali rolled her eyes and gave the handle to her son, disappointment clear in her eyes.  


  


Ajay hesitantly cut across his wrist and let the blood (brown and red) collect in the goblet.  


  


Kali touched her son and his wound healed instantly while the blade vanished.  


  


Yang Chang passed the bloody goblet to Anima.  


  


Anima summoned her own blade. Kali did not seem surprised while Hades’ eyes widened in recognition.  


  


Anima cut her skin, bleed a bit into the goblet (bits of whitish blue mixed with dark red liquid) and healed herself, sending her blade off to where it had been.  


  


Hades summoned his own blade, black and twisted, sliced his own skin and bleed black and gold into the goblet.  


  


“Sealed in blood; the agreement is made. The parent will be aware of their offspring’s mental state, and be given whereabouts when fearful, or endangered. Ajay will not be affected by distance between himself and Anima anymore,” Yang Chang stated.  


  


The deities vanished.  


  


Anima turned and left.  


  


Ajay began to follow, only for Anima to say, “You are dismissed for the night.”  


  


Ajay nodded, and went to his own dorm while Anima went to her own, glad she had still managed to avoid talking about what had happened that morning in BIH.  


  


In her own dorm Yama sat in his bed.  


  


“So?” asked Yama expectantly, having not forgotten their earlier conversation. Anima had to explain why she trusted Yama more than him to protect her, now.  


  


“He’s still bonded to me, but before he was caused pain by separation... now that will not be a factor. Yang Chang will be breaking up our team, and he will remain my Yang bond should she honor our parent's prefrences, and we all know she has to play politics now. From what I can see, she’ll stick you with a rando, and Melanie with Skye. Aune is a tossup, probably some random angry Oden-spawn whining about his dad being dead.”  


  


Yama grumbled he was going to the gym, leaving Anima to wonder what her next course of action should be... her ties to the school were weakening and her bondmates were sure to be bound to others. If she wasn't bound to stay because they need her... Could she return to the Surface?

**Author's Note:**

> Comments make me write faster, so feel free to say how you feel!


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